


The Beta's Hunter

by Dgray3994



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Beta Derek Hale, Beta Liam Dunbar, College Years, Derek's love interest, F/M, Good Theo Raeken, He can be an asshole too, Hurt Liam Dunbar, Isaac comes home, M/M, Monster Hunters, Multi, Not sure how many chapter this will be, Posting as I go, Protective Derek, Protective Liam, Some Plot, Stiles gets it now, Swearing, Theo finds his own, Theo is a freak, True Alpha Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), True Mates, a little Liam smut, maybe it's not all sex, she's a what?, something to do, there is sex in this story, what's going on with the betas, yes even Stiles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:00:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25271275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dgray3994/pseuds/Dgray3994
Summary: Liam isn't sure what the hell is going on. He wasn't sure what that smell was, didn't understand why he couldn't get it out of his head, but he knew one thing was absolutely for certain, whoever that hunter was that saved his life, he HAD to find her.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Original Female Character(s), Isaac Lahey/Original Female character/Original Male Character, Liam Dunbar & Theo Raeken, Liam Dunbar/Original Female Character(s), Stiles Stilinski/Original Female Character(s), Theo Raeken/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 8
Collections: Teen Wolf





	1. Liam

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a multi-chapter event, or whenever I decide to post stuff on it. It's really hard to write mates for these guys that I would actually like.  
> I'm sorry if you get multiple update notifications, I realized my mistake with the wolfsbane scenario so I had to change it.

His breathing stayed rhythmic even with the speed he was traveling. His bright, golden eyes saw clearly in the darkness of the forest as he ran, but he didn’t need sight to tell him the two wolves were still after him. They were trespassers on the preserve, omegas, and it was his job to lead them right to Scott.

He did his job well.

Their footfalls were gaining traction and Liam did his best to use the knowledge of the land he had grown up on to his advantage. It worked, for the most part, until he hit a patch of wet, fallen leaves and slid. 

It had poured the night before, being the wettest part of the season he should have known there’d be spots that would be dangerous, but not here. There were barely any dips or valleys in this part of the woods, but here he was flat on his back staring up at the stars.

He couldn't breathe, for some reason couldn’t catch his breath and as he lifted his head to see if he could clear the fog that was encroaching his vision, he saw them. Two men, burly, blue eyes glowing, fangs and claws bared, and boy, was he up shit’s creek without the damn boat, forget the paddle.

Liam scrambled up the best he could, the pain in his side not ebbing at all, and he looked down to see why. A small branch protruded from his skin, not having broken through the fabric of his shirt, but tenting it inside and he rolled his eyes. He was pissed, but he noticed the angrier he got, the weaker he felt.

Liam stumbled, his eyes completely losing focus before he sat down hard, an _umph_ escaping his lips as he did so, and then he let his head hang. It was like everything was suddenly drawn out of him. He reached back, trying to find the end, but there was nothing to grab onto. Whatever way it had gone in wasn’t exactly in the right spot, and he was screwed.

Breathing was starting to get harder too, and he could sense that the omegas were getting closer. He could hear them over his racing heart and that wasn’t good at all. He had to calm it, but he didn’t have control on the best nights, so being hurt and threatened wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to come down from.

That’s when it happened, just as he leaned back on his hands, trying to find the end of the damn thing just by feeling it that way, still nothing, but he was able to flash his golden eyes, let the wolf take over and see their heat signatures. Hell, he’d rather see his end coming, but that was the moment the arrow sped by, not only hitting one of the omegas, but sending him crashing to the ground, as if he had been taken out by some grenade launcher and not some thin piece of metal. 

The second omega roared in a direction that Liam wasn’t able to turn in, every time he moved his head, it swam and he’d rather not puke before he died, a man had to have his priorities. He didn’t have to wait long to see what the werewolf was staring at. 

She stepped into Liam’s eye line, crossbow out in front of her, and it didn’t look nearly large enough to do anything with those bolts, but the omega didn’t bother moving any closer. From what Liam could see she was short in stature, slim, but holding her own, long dark hair blowing back loose, but then again, he was dying, so maybe it was all his imagination.

He couldn’t focus on the muffled conversation going on between them, he could only hear her heart, steady, strong… excited, not fearful, and it never even ticked up when she fired off the bolt in her hand. Liam watched as the omega stopped, like he was paralyzed, then fell back like a statue. All the woman did was take two seconds to breathe before lowering the crossbow and turning towards him. 

Liam growled, tried to seem capable of tearing her apart but the closer she moved, the more he could smell her. Yes, smell her! He could pick up chemo signals better than anyone, know exactly what someone was feeling by their scent but that’s not what he was… it was just her. Something spicy that clung to the back of his throat, but tempting enough that would make you not only want a taste but eat the whole damn thing, and there was an undertone of… lemons? No, lemon meringue. She smelled like spicy pie, if that was even a thing.

She crouched beside him, reached for the hem of his shirt and tugged it upward, moving the branch, something that he growled at and she gave him a light “tsk” before she finally had it out of the way.

“Looks like you got yourself into a pickle, Wolfie,” she spoke softly, like she wasn’t even afraid that there was an angry beta just beneath her hands, and, oh, her hands. Liam tried not to roll his eyes the moment her fingertips touched his stomach. It was like waves of calm and need all rolled into one as she traced the exit wound with her fingers. “If you promise not to bite me, I think I can help.”

Liam scoffed, but it turned into a gentle laugh before he just swallowed hard and nodded. He couldn’t say anything, he just stared. Her accent was different but one he had heard before. East coast - Massachusetts - that’s where he had heard it. There had been one summer that his parents had vacationed on the beach but this wasn’t eastern Mass, not a “Boston” accent, this was lighter.

“Hold steady,” she wrapped both hands around the branch, stared him right in his eyes and snapped it. Liam howled, let his head drop back and he rolled onto his side. “Good boy.” she wasn’t saying it to be condescending and Liam absolutely didn’t take it that way, he just wanted the pain to stop. Apparently, rolling was exactly what she needed him to do. “Well, ain’t that a bitch?”

She was behind him now, hands going over his hips as she shifted his shirt, and with her out of sight, he couldn’t tell where she was aiming. Hell, she could have been going for his heart but at that moment, he didn’t care, he was surrounded by the feel of her, the smell of her and suddenly, there was a blinding flash of pain.

What came next was only darkness.

Liam blinked awake as the sun broke through the trees. The sound of three heartbeats filled his ears, but the scent of spicy pie was gone. He drew in a breath... nothing hurt, as if it hadn’t happened. When he rolled over and forced himself to sit up, he knew what he would find, nothing, everything would be healed and he would be right as rain.

That was far from the case. There was a white gauze wrap around his waist, he could smell the pungent odor of some salve under it, as it started to cover up the mystery hunter’s scent but it felt awesome. He lifted his blue eyes, ran a gritty hand through his dirty-blonde hair, and looked around. The bodies were gone, there were no omega corpses to be seen, and those three heartbeats were fast approaching.

Theo was the first one beside him, quietly checking him over when he saw the wrap, but he didn’t say anything, even his trademark smirk was gone and replaced by worry. Scott and Stiles were next, coming up slower, stopping to look at the spots where the omegas had fallen because there was clearly blood.

“Liam,” Scott whispered as he knelt beside him, helping him back against a tree, something the younger wolf winced from, “what happened?”

“I screwed up,” he sighed, “got impaled.” He reached for the bloody branch that still lay beside him and held it up.

“Is that?” Stiles started, reaching out to snap the branch away. “Leave it to you to be the only wolf in history that almost kills himself with mountain ash. How the hell did you accomplish that?”

“I don’t know,” Liam laughed at the way Stiles always showed concern.

“Forget that, how are you even alive?” Theo grumbled, fear and curiosity in his voice.

“There was this hunter,” Liam started, glancing around, hoping maybe she was somewhere close but he didn’t even sense her in the slightest. 

“A hunter? You really think you’d be alive if it were a hunter?” Stiles smirked, taking the stick to look at. “Hallucinogenic mountain ash?”

“Think I did this to myself?” He gestured to the gauze. “She took out the omegas, and then she took out the branch. Guess she saved my life.”

“Can you walk?” Scott whispered, giving Liam a moment to get to his feet. The beta assessed his strength and nodded, but it was Theo’s “hmm” that caught his attention. 

The chimera stood, holding up a silver bolt, or what was left of it and held it out in the palm of his hand. “He definitely wasn’t out here alone.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here before she comes back.” Scott let Liam lean on him as he moved, but the younger one couldn’t help but look back as he moved, biting his lip as he watched Theo play with the bolt in his hand.

Who was she?

~~~~~

It had been a week since the woods and Liam couldn’t shake himself out of the confused daze he had been in for that long. He kept hearing her voice, kept smelling that spiced pie, but there was never anything around. Theo, his constant shadow always, had noticed his jumpiness and finally had enough.

They got out of the house, out of classes at the college and just sat at the cafe in town. Coffee seemed to help him chill out, probably having the same effect on Liam’s IED diagnosis as it had on Stiles’ ADHD one, the opposite of everyone else. The caffeine always mellowed him, though he preferred soda over coffee, but if Theo was buying, Liam would take the bitter drink, and load it up with sugar.

“Gonna tell me yet?” Theo asked as Liam looked nervously around, but that caught Liam’s attention. 

“About?”

“The woman in the woods.”

“How? How do you know it was a woman?” Liam barely remembered the conversation let alone the _woman_ in the woods, except in his dreams.

“Dude, we share an apartment, you don’t moan in your sleep for a guy,” Theo stopped, crossed his arms on the table, and smirked - and the asshole was back. “Or you do and you haven’t told me yet. Which is cool, cause, you know…”

“I know,” Liam sighed. Everyone knew about Theo, he loved unconditionally, no matter the gender, but Liam… He looked over his friend, his _best_ friend, other than Mason, and sighed. He would never tell Theo that he found him insanely attractive, that would just boost the man’s ego and no one needed that but he had never written it off either. The problem was Theo wasn’t the one he’d been thinking about. “That night with the omegas...”

“Where you practically killed yourself,” Theo’s scowl was the only give away that he was even remotely shaken by that event.

“Yeah, that.”

“What about it?”

“The person… I think she was a hunter.”

“You said that, in the woods, but,” Theo shook his head and sat back, “a hunter that only hunts omegas and patches up wild, mountain ash-poisoned betas?”

“I know, I know it sounds crazy but that’s pretty much what happened.”

“And you said she, so, this hunter _was_ a woman?”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s why you’re having wet dreams of her like some overly hormonal teenager?”

“Pretty much.” Liam sighed out and shook his head. “I can’t get the scent of her out of my head.”

This got a reaction from Theo, who suddenly sat up. “Scent?”

“Are you suddenly Scott? Constantly repeating what I say?” 

“Now hold on, C-4, just hear me out,” Theo sighed, “anything else you want to tell me about her before I got into this whole scent theory?”

Liam could feel his face turn bright red, something that shouldn’t be happening at his age, but college students were allowed to be shy, right? Or embarrassed? He drew in a breath, closed his eyes and let it out slowly, hoping to control the shift, but he felt his claws dig into his palm as he shook his head. 

“When she touched me,” and there was the smile he was hoping to avoid. Growling, he shook his head and looked away, “it was like fire no matter where her fingers went, but cool and calming at the same time. So many mixed emotions, but the moment she talked…”

“Her voice too?” Theo was loving this way too much.

“Shut up and listen! This is why I didn’t tell any of you stuff, private stuff.”

“Okay, okay, shutting up, just keep talking.”

“She… um, she was there, like everywhere, but right in my space at the same time, nothing else mattered, and seriously, she could have killed me and I would have been happy.” Liam felt his claws slowly descend as he thought of her, the way her heart beat, the smell of her skin, the touch of her fingers, and he let his head drop down, chin to his chest. “I just,” he glanced at Theo from under his lashes and sighed, “I need to find her.”

“That makes sense,” he huffed out his nose, like a light scoff before sitting back. “You know what she is, right?”

“A hunter?” He questioned sarcastically.

“Your other half.”

This made Liam sit up, “no way.”

“Yeah, way.” 

“It’s not like you to believe in that whole _true mates_ thing, Theo, what’s your deal?”

“Come on, you have everything, every sign, and you don’t think it’s true?”

“She wasn’t a werewolf, she was a hunter,” Liam snapped, “need me to spell out that one little hiccup for you? Hunt-ER!” he growled, “which means my life or hers.”

“Not necessarily.”

“I hate you!” Liam flopped back in the seat and let his head tip back on the rest. 

“No, you don’t,” and that was a laugh, every single word of that statement was a laugh, which only got Liam to smile.

“No, I don’t,” he whispered, staring up at the bright morning sky.

“Come on, we’re going to be late for history.” 

He didn’t hear Theo get up, he just felt the weight of his palm on his chest, and moved his eyes just enough to see the man leaning over him. Liam let the smile fade into a scowl.

“You try to kiss me, and I _will_ punch you!” 

“Hey,” his friend grinned, “I know you’re off limits.” But he winked. “Just… let’s go before we’re late.”

~~~~~

It was a Friday night, two weeks after the omega issue before he caught her scent again, and this time, it wasn’t because of werewolves. He was passing a club on the way home, having stayed late at the college library in hopes that he could catch up on a bit of the biology assignment that he missed taking care of another problem in Beacon Hills that should really have not been _his_ problem. 

He wasn’t like Scott, even after all these years, he only helped because it was what his alpha would do, and because there was no way he wanted to see any of his pack dead. Right now, he just wanted to concentrate on getting that diploma, but even that was getting harder to focus on. So, there he was heading back from the campus library at God-only-knows what time of the morning when he caught the scent of spicy sweet pie, and he stopped, just to breathe it in.

His hands shook as he closed his eyes, knowing they were bright gold, and slowly he made his way around the side of the building, huffing out breath after breath, repeating the mantra that had once belonged to Satomi's pack, to Brett. The sun, the moon, the truth, but it wasn’t working, not like it should. 

He pressed the nail of his thumb into the bed of his opposite palm, cutting deep as he let the pain keep him somewhat human, counting the steps he took, trying to focus on the beat of a heart. Liam stopped, back to the opening of the alley and he shook. That heartbeat was too close, way too close.

“Having troubles, Wolfie?” Her voice flooded over him as the scent of her, this time combined with sweat, filled his senses. Liam rounded, bright eyes blazing as he bared blunt fangs. “Oh, you are, aren’t you?”

“Stay away,” he whispered, but it was a deep, violent rumble in his chest, something most people would run from, but she was stepping closer. 

“Well, I see there’s no side effects of the poison, that’s good.” 

Liam stepped back, still in a defensive stance, but took in the ease of her movements, like she was just walking up to someone she knew, that was until he hit the wall. His back pressed heavily against it, his claws curled into his fists but the only thing he did when she reached out was shake.

“Not gonna hurt you, Wolf,” she breathed easy as he curled his lips back. 

She was beautiful up close; bright, kaleidoscope eyes that changed with the reflections of the streetlamp and the way she moved; long, silky hair that rested over her shoulders. Her body looked fit, trim under the skin tight shirt she wore that exposed her midriff and the jeans were nearly painted on, but she didn’t wear any makeup and from what he could scent, she wasn’t wearing perfume either. 

He moaned as the pure essence of just her hit him and he closed his eyes tight, swallowing back the need to possess her. He didn’t expect to feel her nose against his neck, something his eyes flew open wide from, or her hands on his hips, holding him in place. 

“Huh, I thought it was you, hoped I was wrong but knew inside that it had to be you,” her words were warm sweeps of breath against his neck and Liam could feel himself shaking apart, trying to hold back. “Never smelled a wolf before, a vampire, maybe, you can’t mistake those guys, but not a wolf.”

“What are you?” Not who, because he knew exactly _who_ she was, but what and she chuckled at him. 

“Just a human, but you,” she hadn’t moved from the spot, not backing up anyway, instead she came closer, pressing her leg between his, and her body, hip to chest, to him as she drew in deeply. “God, you’re intoxicating.”

“Please, stop,” Liam wasn’t the begging sort, but damn, if she didn’t move soon... “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You would have done it already if that was what you really wanted.” 

He let his fists uncurl, took the chance that she was right, and slowly let his hands come to rest on her hips, grasping at them as she pressed closer, grinding against him, and Liam let his head fall forward, mouth to the pulse points on the slope of her shoulders. The spicy notes became more so, the sweet turned overwhelming and that hint of lemon just sent his senses reeling. 

“Oh, God,” he shifted against her, drew her in with a snap, feeling the ridge of his cock press against her hip. He needed, wanted, had to have, but he still couldn’t move to do anything else. 

She could though. Her hand moved up, away from his hip, following the line of his torso, stopping only to give the spot she helped repair a squeeze before running up over his pecks, until she landed on the other side of his neck, up and into his hair, fisting it gently before she gave a light tug.

Her lips replaced her nose, leaving wet kisses along the tight muscle of his neck as he let her pull his head back, and her teeth grazed against his skin, igniting a fire deep inside him. Liam knew the moment her own arousal flared, the tang of lemon assaulted him, filled him with his own and he let his claws curl into her skin. His breathing came in rapid pants and he ground his teeth together to keep his fangs from springing out.

“What are you doing?” He needed to know, wanted to prepare for the end if she was going to kill him, or at least get off before she did, and the thought of her hand around his cock was something that had his hands moving. One sliding to the small of her back, holding her tight against him as he slowly moved his hips, letting the pressure and the friction of his jeans create exactly what he needed, as the other slipped up, found the length of her hair and tangled in it. “If you’re going to kill me, get on with it, quit fucking around.”

“Oh, Beta-man, I don’t want to kill you,” she smiled against the shell of his ear, “I think I wanna take you apart, slowly, and put you back together again.”

Liam shook his head the best he could, something that only got her to yank hard on his hair. “You’re a hunter.”

“And you’re mine,” she sighed out, reaching down between them. Liam let his fangs go, while dull and pointed, were still visible as she masterfully opened his belt and jeans before he could think. With one hand, she had him out and exposed to the world. “What do you want, Wolfie? Do you want me?”

He let his chest expand, finally found his strength and turned his head, letting his eyes, glowing with power, fall on hers. “I wanna put you against the wall and fuck you until you scream.”

“Sounds enjoyable.” She leaned in, leaving barely any space between his lips and hers as she wrapped her fingers around the base of his cock. Liam snarled, a low vibration that hitched when she used the barest of pressure to stroke upwards, rounding the tip of his swollen head to slip over his slit, slicking him up with just the small amount of pre-cum that beaded there. “I bet you’d feel amazing.”

“What are you doing?” The words were more huffs as she started to move, quickly stroking down, pulling at his skin before that light movement upwards. 

She was good, and he wasn’t going to last long, especially when she suddenly had the perfect rhythm. Liam let his body relax, hands, human hands, gripping at her as he sighed into her touch. He felt the moment she released his hair and that was it, there was no way he was staying away from her lips any longer. He closed the distance, used the fact that his hand was already gripping her to hold her still as he ravaged her mouth, tongue slipping in as soon as she opened for him, but tasting her didn’t help his stamina.

He felt the heat pooling low, the moment his balls pulled up against him, and he hissed out as he spilled into her hand, and what got him was the sound he swallowed when she moaned with him, like getting him off alone was exactly what she needed to cum untouched. 

He let up on her lips, but didn’t let her go, slowing it down to gentle, tender kisses as she melted against him, uncaring of the fact that they were both now tacky and covered in cooling cum. Her hands moved, skimming over him, wanting to touch, slipping under his shirt and Liam couldn’t care less that she was stroking over him with his own scent.

“Dakota,” she whispered against his lips when he broke for air. Liam wasn’t dense, he knew what she was offering.

“Liam,” he sighed, wrapping his arms around her as he moved to place his mouth against her neck, rubbing his cheek along any skin he could find. 

“I know,” she let her forehead fall to his chest as he fingers squeezed. “I have to go.”

It was quick, the way she pushed back, slipped from his embrace and moved into the darkness. He wanted to follow her, to figure this shit out, but he was too stunned to move. She was there one minute and gone the next, something he had only seen a werewolf do, saw Peter do, the lurky bastard. 

Liam let his body relax, quickly tucked himself away, uncaring of the way the tacky feeling was now stiffening, and he groaned. His shirt was a navy blue, his jeans, well they were jeans, and both had white stains on them now. Not to mention he could smell himself - and her - no matter which way he turned his head. 

Theo was going to have a field day with this.

He pushed off the wall, swaying for a moment as he did, before steadying himself. He walked out of the alley, shoulders hunched, hands tucked into his pockets and made his way home. 

~~~~~

There wasn’t a light on when he got there, and he could hear the heartbeat of not only the chimera, but a human as well. Theo had brought someone home, which was good because it gave Liam a chance to rush for the shower.

He stood under the spray, angry that he was washing away her scent, but needing to clean himself of his own seed. He was stuck in a loop of replaying the night in his head, everything that happened in the alley, so far gone that he never heard the door open, or the heartbeat that followed, never once noticed the door closing until he heard the sigh.

“I see what you mean,” Theo’s voice jolted him from his memories, and he yanked the curtain aside to see the man sitting on the toilet, nose buried in Liam’s discarded shirt. “The two of you together,” Theo looked blitzed out, eyes slitted only wide enough for Liam to make out the gold color, but he was flush and dazed. “It’s like… fucking… you should bottle this.”

Liam - partially grossed out, and more than embarrassed - watching him dive into the shirt again. It should really shock him, but Theo was an odd ball to begin with, very much pansexual and very open with Liam about it. It wasn’t the first time he had caught him sniffing around his clothes. 

“Is that what got you out of bed?” Liam pulled the curtain closed again as the sudden rapid sound of Theo’s heart distracted him from his thoughts. “Dude, don’t you dare jack off on my shirt. It’s the only thing I have that smells like her.”

“I won’t,” his voice was breathless, and while he may have said he wouldn’t use his shirt, that wasn’t stopping him from _actually_ yanking one out on the other side of the plastic divider, and oddly enough, still wasn’t the weirdest thing they had done in each other’s presence. “Fuck!”

“I suppose you’re going to end up in here with me after,” Liam groaned.

“Yeah,” Theo swallowed with an audible click as the sound of his hand roughly handling his cock grew louder. “If you,” he breathed a couple times, “don’t mind.”

“Of course, I mind, that’s just not going to stop you.” He grabbed the soap, lathered up his body and pretended not to be interested in the noises coming from the man. He was even tempted to watch but he just put his hand out, braced against the wall and drowned him out with the sound of the water. 

He missed the way he came.

~~~~~

It didn’t surprise Liam that Theo’s guest wasn’t there when he woke up, they never were, but it did give him a bit of a shock to find the man awake and sitting on the couch with a full coffee mug full of steaming liquid. Usually after a night like last, Theo was dead to the world, but he could see it on his face that something was bugging him. 

He looked up, blue eyes going over the load of laundry in Liam’s hands, a full one, minus the navy tee-shirt that was tucked in the bottom draw beside his bed, and sighed. He wasn’t ready to lose her scent fully yet. Theo broke the stare the two had going on before Liam moved to the laundry closet and started a load. It wasn’t until he came back to the same space as Theo that the man talked.

“So she really was a hunter, wasn’t she?” There was concern in his voice, that and uncertainty.

“Yeah.” Liam got up again, moved into the kitchen and poured himself a cup before he grabbed a muffin from the counter. Theo had gotten muffins? He stared for a minute before he made his way back over and flopped down on the couch. He raised it in salute and smirked. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“She, ah…”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know, but she’s human.”

This got Theo’s eyes to snap up at him. “All the way?”

“As far as I could tell, there’s nothing supernatural about her.”

“Okay, your mate is a human.”

“Don’t say that, don’t say that… word.”

“What are you so afraid of?” And Theo was right, he was terrified. “If you wanted to hurt her, you would have done it already.”

She had said that last night, too. “Can we just… not, right now?”

“Are you going to find her?” Because, of course, he would ask that.

“No, not…” Liam put the muffin down, and the coffee as he sat with his elbows on his knees, clenching and unclenching his fists. “The moon’s tonight.”

“I’m aware,” and apparently awareness of the full moon and it’s pull on werewolves was not his concern at the moment. “Are _you_ ,” he let that draw out, “going to find _her_?”

“It’s a bad idea.”

But that smirk on Theo’s face was anything but deterring. “It’s a great idea.”

“For you, maybe,” Liam growled, “you don’t want to put her against any hard surface and fuck her until she passes out.”

“Really?” 

“Hence, the bad idea part.”

“Well, that’s new.”

“What’s new, Theo? My wanting someone? It’s not new at all, the whole I could bite her and make her mine, that’s new. Sex is not new.”

“Until she passes out? That’s new.”

“Shut up.” Liam stood, rounded the couch and paced while Theo only sat back and watched.

“I can help you.”

“I don’t want your help.” 

“You know I’m the best tracker in the pack.”

“I don’t want your help, Theo,” he growled, still pacing, not even focusing on his friend. “And you just want to shove your nose in my shirt again.”

“Because the two of you are a fucking drug,” he let it roll out like it was the absolute truth. “God, can you imagine if you use the shirt to wipe up after you were done, sex pheromones from you both could give me a heart attack.” Theo paused, sat forward and started at him, which finally made Liam nervous enough to stop and look at the begging man’s blue eyes. “Please, do that! For me, please.”

“You’re disgusting.” Theo gave him his usual smirk, letting him know that he owned that title with pride. Liam worked it over in his head, finally resting his hands on the back of the couch as he gave in. “Are you sure you can find her?”

“Won’t know until we try.”

He agreed, he stupidly agreed.

~~~~~

Theo was high, like as a kite as he stood in the alley, his eyes sex-laden, his body lax as he stood with his back against the wall, the very spot where Liam and Dakota had been and he was breathing in deeply through his nose as Liam rocked in place from one leg to the other. 

“Seriously, now you’re just being gross. I know you can smell her, hell, I can smell her, but you’re just drinking it in, aren’t you?” He grumbled and watched as Theo smiled widely. “Cut the shit, can you find her?”

“Without a doubt.” Theo pushed off from the wall, stopping abruptly for a moment as if he had caught something else and slowly looked around. 

“What?” Okay, that look… that worried Liam.

“Someone else was here.”

“Who?”

“A werewolf,” Theo all but whispered that as he looked around, eyes to the ground until he found what he was looking for, something that Liam couldn’t see, and he stepped three up and two over before he drew in a deep breath. “Definitely a werewolf.”

“And?”

His eyes locked on Liam’s, “you’re not going to like it.”

“He’s after her, isn’t he?”

There was a small series of nods before Theo finally got it out, “yeah.”

~~~~~~

Tracking her wasn’t hard, not with Theo beside him, not with the fact that just like at the club, he could pick up her scent as soon as he got close enough, but that wasn’t the problem. It was whatever was after her too. The cheap, sleazy motel room she had been staying in was ransacked, there was evidence of a struggle, and the scent of blood, human blood, had Liam ramped up. He couldn’t control the shift when he caught the hint of it, at least not until Theo found the shirt she had been wearing and stuffed it in Liam’s face, letting it wash over him.

That was new. 

The fact that it calmed him, took him out of the whole beast mode and put him in something completely different was not what he was used to, but then again, with Theo as an anchor, he should have been _used_ to the unexpected. The fact that Theo had managed to catch a trail was something unbelievable but like he said, he was the best tracker in the pack. Being a coyote and a wolf seemed to give him extra sensory control, enough that when they arrived at the old silo, Liam had no doubt he was in the right place.

It wasn’t just one large, round grain silo, it was a whole storage facility. Liam sighed, always with the old abandoned shit, questioning why there were no original villains anymore but it was Theo’s persistent pulling on his arm that got him to move from his spot beside the truck.

“Come on, I can hear her heartbeat.” 

It only took a little tug to get him to move after that. Theo gave him everything he could hear, the shuffling of feet, the sound of chains, the way her heartbeat that Liam couldn’t quite pick up. She was in pain but she was alive and strong. He told him about the sound of water, the low buzz of electricity but not from a generator.

That left Liam with one conclusion, they were totally _fucked_!

Ducking in and out of shadows, around doorways and over anything that might make noise, the two of them masterfully made their way into the darkest parts of the building, at least until they came to a point that was well-lit, covered in plastic. and reeked of blood.

“The omega,” Liam said it so softly that even with his advanced hearing, Theo barely caught it, but he nodded. He knew it, both of them did, that was the reason the pair was so easy to track. They were covered in the scent of blood. 

Theo only used eye contact and short hand gestures to get Liam to do what he wanted. They had been at this a long time, since Liam’s sophomore year in high school. Working together was not a new thing, and their development of non-verbal communication had only gotten better. 

Theo ducked right, Liam took to the left and they moved through the shadows. They used everything to their advantage, columns, doorways, walls, but the thing that really got Liam to move his ass was the groans of pain as that consistent buzzing grew louder than faded. 

He was electrocuting her!

Liam closed his eyes, held in the anger… no, the rage, until he could look directly across the room at Theo’s golden eyes. There was a flash, a long blink and two more flashes before Liam stepped out of the darkness.

The omega sensed him instantly, knowing his scent from two weeks ago, and Liam just smiled when the brute turned to look at him. With his height, everyone seemed to underestimate his strength and that was fine, it always gave him an advantage. This time, it gave him everything. Liam rolled his head, cracking his neck before he brought his gaze back to the omega, fully shifted and roaring more like a lion than a wolf, but it was a werewolf thing, he had come to find out. The human vocal chords, while having the ability to howl, tended to roar instead.

The omega responded in kind and came at him full force. What he didn’t see was Theo behind him and as the man took a swing, one that Liam ducked from, Theo was coming down from behind, elbow to the back of the head, sending the big guy reeling. He turned towards the new arrival as Theo stood tall, cocky look on his face, and gestured him forward. 

Liam’s job was to get to Dakota, and he ducked and weaved around the fight, always in awe of how Theo could hold his own. He was the only one in the pack that had no qualms about killing, and had the golden eyes to prove it. He hadn’t ever been the one to take a human life, not after he had become a chimera, he had only led them to their fate, and in Theo’s eyes, there was a difference. He would never be a blue-eyed omega.

Shifting past the dueling duo, Liam stopped in front of the hunter, looked over her wounds, the bruising ribs and bleeding cuts, but nothing looked life-threatening, nothing that he couldn’t fix at least, and he gently reached up to stroke the back of his hands down her cheek.

Dakota jumped back, eyes suddenly wide as she stared at him, but that shock turned to fury as she clenched her jaw and yanked at the chains around her wrists. She let her breathing pick up and her heartbeat steady before she scowled at him. Liam was just watching her in amazement that she was even able to move.

“Liam!” Her voice snapped him out of his daze and he nodded before she glared up at the chains, shaking them again. “Get me out of these things!”

“Right,” he was quick to find the release, snap the lock from between the links and let it fall to the ground, but he was there the moment her legs started to give out. With his arms wrapped around her waist, she leaned on him, hands gripping his biceps as hard as she could while she buried her nose against his chest, taking in the warmth his body offered. “We have to go.”

Even with that need, he had his hand in her hair, holding her close enough to inhale her scent, but it was the sudden rage-fueled sound from behind him that got Liam to look up. Dakota straightened, her eyes going right to Theo, who was batting at the omega with a steel pipe like he was hitting home runs. She moved around the werewolf, eyes locked on the way the other one moved, and watched as the omega fell.

“Theo!” Liam yelled, just as the chimera raised the end of the pipe and brought it straight down into the heart of the omega. 

He expected a gasp, an _oh, my God_ , from Dakota, something that would tell of the shock she might be in witnessing such brutality, but she just reached back, gripped his shirt in her hand and twisted. She was a hunter, she must have seen some awful things to be so desensitized by the way Theo stood up straight, claws and face dripping with blood, golden eyes set clearly on her. 

That moved him, the way his friend stared, and he took the hand from his shirt, curled his fingers around hers and stepped closer.

“We need to go,” he whispered into her ear, calmly, even as she shook, “okay? We need to go now. Someone had to have heard that.”

“Yeah, okay,” was the only thing she replied, before stepping away from him. Liam let her slip out of his grip, walking a few steps behind as Theo followed. 

The trek back to their apartment was quiet and anything but comfortable.

~~~~~

Liam paced, he could still smell the blood, still hear her painful groans, and Theo was watching him from the couch, completely cleansed of the gore of the day, but that was what was bothering him. Theo. He was too close, too near to _her_ for Liam to be at ease.

“I could leave,” was what he offered.

“No,” Liam grumbled, clenching his fists, leaving nothing for him to argue about, but he explained. “I can’t have that.”

“But you are obviously agitated, and that’s not good for any of us. What if she comes out here in a towel?” Liam growled, low and dangerous, a clear warning. “See, this is not a good idea.”

“Theo, please!” He stopped dead and stared at him, before pacing again. “I can’t have you far away, I just… if she comes out, just…”

“Yeah, I get it, but how about I give you a second option.”

“Fuck you, your options always suck!”

“Go in there.”

Liam came to an abrupt halt, like the brakes on the car locked, and his blue eyes met Theo’s. “What?”

“Go. In. There.”

That was absolutely the worst idea ever! Go in there? Going in there was only going to lead to one thing. Going in there would make her scent so much stronger. Going in there would mean leaving Theo out here alone. Going in there… he looked at the door… was a perfect idea.

Liam braced himself, drew in a breath and headed straight for the door. He didn’t bother knocking, didn’t want to change her telling him to go away, but as soon as he shut the door, he realized how bad of a mistake he had made, because her scent wasn’t just strong, it was debilitating. His human side shut off the moment he breathed in the steamy smell of spice, mixed with the tang of lemons and sweet edge of meringue. 

This was so bad. So very bad.

His shirt was off, shoes kicked to the side, jeans dropped to the floor before he even knew what was going on himself, but the moment he drew back the curtain, that human brain kicked in and he stared. There were more bruises than he thought, more damage that needed to be fixed and slowly he stepped into the blast of warm water. Dakota had turned the moment he pushed the curtain aside, but she didn’t move to cover herself, in fact, her arm stayed out, bracing her against the side wall.

“How bad is it?” His voice was low, cautious, worried and she shook her head, drawing in the air around her.

“Mmm,” she huffed,glancing down at her own self, “not as bad as the last time I fought a couple rogue wolves.”

Her eyes scanned down over his body, taking in the hard span of chest muscles, solid abs that made up a rippled six-pack and the way his hips dipped into a vee leading down to the dirty blonde trail from his navel to his crotch. Liam’s lip ticked up the moment her heart fluttered.

“Like what you see?” Cocky! Totally a Theo move, but hey, he’d only been around the guy for five years, even if it did feel like forever, he was bound to pick up some bad habits.

“See, smell,” she turned and put her back to the wall, “love to know how you taste too.”

“You’re not freaked out by this?” He shifted his body, carefully pressing against her as much as he could without causing her more pain. 

“You kidding, this is probably the freakiest thing I’ve ever come up against.” She scoffed, raising her arms to rest on his shoulders, but it wasn’t a far reach, they were pretty similar in height. Liam leaned down, closed his eyes as he let his lips smooth over the skin on her shoulder and he felt her shake this time. “How can a human smell a werewolf, and why the hell do you smell so good to start with?”

“We have a word for it,” he let his warm breath spread over her skin, and watched the goosebumps rise. “Though I’m not sure now is the best time to talk about it.”

“Why? Gonna put me up against a wall and fuck me until I pass out?” Liam growled at the thought but let his teeth graze over her pulse, getting a whole body shift from her. “Cause I might be okay with that.”

“You’re hurt.” His hand rested against her thigh before he let the pads of his fingers move north, skirting over the neatly trimmed patch between her legs, until he could press his hand over her stomach, fingers spread, taking in every inch of her, until he was cupping her breasts. “I don’t want to hurt you more.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Her fingers dug into his hair, both of them as his lips moved down over her collarbone, dipping to capture the nipple of the captured breast in his mouth. She raised her leg around his hip, trying to draw him closer as his free hand slipped between her opened thighs, fingers separating the folds to find her clit. She drew out a hiccuped “oh-ho,” as when he flicked at it. “Stop teasing, Dunbar.”

“Not teasing, fully intend to act,” he mumbled, as he moved on, slowly lowering himself to his knees at the leg around his hip, ended up resting on his shoulder, crooked at the knee. His blue eyes smiled up at her. “I won’t let you fall.”

It became a race the moment his tongue touched her. This was where that sweet smell was coming from, and Liam dived in like a man starved. He flicked and sucked, pulling her into scrap his teeth across her skin. He delved in deep and licked like it was the last thing he might ever have, but it was when he pressed the tip of his finger in that he was the one moaning because of the heat. 

Surging up to find her mouth, Liam took over every part of the moment, commanded every movement as he lifted her up, cupping under her ass to get her to wrap her legs around his waist, while slowly lowering her onto his cock. It stood thick and waiting on its own, no need to guide it in, and it almost hurt to have her so tightly wrapped around him.

He stopped for only a breath once he was fully seated inside her. He needed, even with his baser instincts taking over, to know that she wanted this and for all of their lack of words, the want was right here in her eyes. 

He drew back, biting down on his lip, holding his breath, just enough to catch the hitch of her breath and then he slammed home. Dakota’s fingers dug deep into the muscles of his shoulders, spurring him on as she clenched around his cock and that was all the motivation he needed. 

They moved, like they were made for each other, more than the scent bonding, more than the whole _true mate_ bullshit that Theo spewed. They had a natural rhythm, a way of reading each other that brought out the animal in Liam, enough that his eyes were bright, but his claws were in check.

He pounded into her, something she begged for, even if he wished he could have been more tender considering her injuries, but it was what she asked for, what she needed, and that was all he could offer. Everything she wanted.

He shifted, unlocked her ankles, and turned her as he lowered her to the tile. He grabbed one knee and lifted it to the ledge, pressed his body against hers from behind and gently slipped in again, but as he pulled her back against his chest, she bit down on his arm.

Liam growled low, his hips thrusting against her, slowly bending her forward for the best angle and he felt his fangs pop through, this time they weren’t blunt, at all. They were sharp enough to shred, to break through skin and the more she pressed her teeth against him, the more he wanted to let them sink in. 

“Stop,” he begged, hips taking on a rough rhythm, pounding against her ass. “Stop biting.” He ripped his arm from her teeth, smelling the blood she had drawn to the surface like a hickey and brought his hand up to brace just beneath her throat. He pulled her back, put his lips against her ear and growled. The low moan and the clench of her muscles around him told him the only thing he wanted to know. She liked it. “Mine.”

“Mhm,” was the only reply she gave.

“Say it.” He wasn’t usually so vocal, but he had to hear it. “Say you’re mine.”

“Liam,” she was begging, pleading, as her hand came up to grasp his, wrap around his wrist. “Yours.” She punched out, like it was her last breath, and suddenly she was coming, washing over him hotter than the shower spray. “God, always yours.”

Liam couldn’t hold back, he opened his jaw, brought his mouth down to her shoulders, and sucked hard, teeth barely holding back breaking the skin, but that was enough for her. Dakota screamed as she came again, taking him with her this time as he balls tightened and he spilled into her. 

His hips slowed, becoming barely there movements, almost a sway, but he was spent, he just didn’t want to give her up as he rested his head between her shoulders. Dakota shook, her knees going weak as Liam held her up. 

From outside somewhere in the living room, approximately around the area of the couch, Liam heard Theo groan and the quiet words that escaped his lips.

“Oh, God,” came Theo's panting voice, and it brought a smile to Liam’s face, “I think I’m in love.”

  
  



	2. Derek

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek/Hunter
> 
> Charlie was on a mission... hunt the things that hunted her. That's right, she was a hunter, but... she was something else as well. It wasn't until a chance meeting on the side of the road that she finally felt like maybe hunting didn't have to be her life entirely. But what the hell would a hunter do with a beta anyone. Especially one that looked like Derek Hale. And what about the thing still after her? How the hell was she getting out of this one?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh! Sorry for all the errors. I'm going to go through and fix it soon. <3

The sound of the alarm blared through the old hotel room, echoed off the bare-minimum walls, and stirred Charlotte Monroe from the broken sleep she had been in all night. She reached out, slapped her hand down on the button and the room fell into silence.

Pushing the covers from her head, she ran a hand down her face, glanced at the time--5:45--and flung the warmth from her body. She shivered when the chilled air hit her bare skin and hissed as the stitch in her side pulled when she moved to sit up in the bed.

Her skin was covered in bruises, albeit fading ones, and some spots still had the blood on it from the night before, but she had needed the time to let them set before she could wash it off. Now was that time.

She pushed herself up and made her way to the small coffee maker, grabbed the glass pot, and stepped into the bathroom, filling it with water. While in there, she blindly fumbled for the knobs in the shower and turned the hot water on. Old places like this had a habit of taking forever to warm up.

Charlotte--Charlie to most--managed to get the pot going, the coffee brewing, before she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. Stripping out of the ruined tank--since it was sticking to her skin, stiff with blood--and now matching underwear, she stepped under the hot stream.

Once showered, dried, and had bandages reapplied, Charlie did the mundane task of getting dressed, though it wasn’t as mundane as it should have been. It was difficult to get her jeans up with the restrictions of the stitches, but she knew those would only last a little while longer, and it hurt to raise her arm the way it was needed to get her shirt on, but she managed.

It was the socks and boots that took time, pulling her knees to her chest to get them tied. Sometimes she wished she were a kid again so she could wear Velcro straps. That little thought brought a smile to her face. Her light eyes scanned the papers, nothing about the whole episode the night before was in it yet. The news played on the old tv in the background and even they weren’t saying anything so, all-in-all, it was a success.

Finishing the pot, she shut it off, packed up all her stuff, and zipped the bag, but when she took one more look around the room, a random feeling gave her pause.

It wasn’t coming from inside--that sense of being watched--but more of beyond the door separating her from the growing light of the morning. She shook it off, dug deep in the side pocket of her bag, and pulled the PPK from its depths, tucking it into the spot between her jeans and her spine. Not the most comfortable position but it held it steady without a holster. She took a deep breath, grabbed her coat and the bag, and swung the door open.

The parking lot was silent… which was awesome because that meant that she might not really have a tail. Of course, it could mean the total opposite but who was she kidding, the only thing that was following her died last night by her hands.

She flipped her keys in her hand, stepped up to the old, beat-up, fox body Mustang, slipped the key in and unlocked the door. The click echoed through the early morning and Charlie felt herself jump. With a groan at her own paranoia, she shook it off and tossed the bag in before getting behind the wheel, safe in the confines of the car.

The motor roared to life, the deep, throaty noise of the engine brought a small smile to her face as she shifted it into reverse and pulled away from the last stop before she made it home.

Oregon sucked. It was time to head south.

Unfortunately, south didn’t get her very far, before the stitches started to burn, not a bad thing, but it definitely meant that she had to stop again.

Traveling down Route 115 through the rolling forests that made up either side, Charlie crossed the town line into Beacon Hills shortly past five o’clock. She slowed at the Beacon Hills Preserve sign, something that she would normally pass by but there was an odd tingling in her wounds that definitely caught her attention. Shaking it off, she drove on… at least for a mile or so.

That was when it happened… or _he_ happened anyway. She skidded to a halt when she rounded the corner, blinded by trees on either side, to see a black Camaro parked just off the side of the road and a man--shirtless--playing under the hood of the steaming vehicle. He looked… oddly familiar.

Not usually one to stop for people in need, Charlie slowed the car, pulling the gun from her back to hide it low by the seat, finger off the trigger but definitely on the safety and she rolled down the window.

He looked up from under the hood and glanced at her, dark hair cut short but wild-looking, and enough scruff on his face to pass off as a soft beard. It was his eyes that got her, bright green in the light that shined through the trees.

“You okay?” She barely got it out, being used to traveling alone would do that to you.

He gave her a half-hearted smile and a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Yeah, thanks. She does this sometimes, blows a fuse when I travel too much. I have help on the way. Thanks for stopping through.”

“No problem.” She winced at the burning, something he seemed to notice because he suddenly looked worried.

“Are _you_ okay?”

“Too much time on the road. Do you know where I can find a place to stay?”

“Actually, you’re not far from town, about five miles that way,” and he pointed in the direction she was headed. That was when he approached the car, Charlie stiffened at the advance, but there was a curious reaction to it as he stopped, breathed in but not so deeply that someone would probably notice, except she did, and he took one step back. “Um, there’s a place called The Edison, it shouldn’t be too busy, but you can get a room there.”

As he shifted in the road, taking another step away, Charlie noticed that she could smell his cologne when the wind turned and blew towards her. He smelled good, better than any man she had ever had contact with, even with the tinge of sweat that rolled off him from standing in the heat. There was the sugary scent of antifreeze, but the rest was definitely all him.

It was like a drug.

Charlie let out a shaky breath, shook her head, and tried to smile. “I hope your help arrives soon; it’s starting to get dark.”

“Don’t worry,” his smile brightened as if it was comical in some way. “I think I got this.”

“Kay, be safe,” she nodded at him, and put the car in gear. “Thanks for the referral.”

“Anytime, enjoy your stay.”

Charlie fought the urge to step on the gas and haul down the road, but she managed to keep her composure.

~~~~~

The Edison was like any other place she had been, unremarkable, but even when she finally closed the door to the room, safe behind its walls, she couldn’t help but think of the man on the road, and how NOT unremarkable he was.

Charlie stripped off her shirt, kicked off the boots, and headed for the bathroom, knife in hand. Once behind the closed door, she stood staring in the mirror, breathing deep even as the fire raced through her. At the last second, she ripped the bandage off, took the edge of the knife and ripped the stitches off one painful tug at a time.

That was when she really felt it.

As she stared into the mirror--as she always did when this happened--her eyes lit up with the fire inside her and began to glow a bright orange. There was a momentary burst of pain before it faded to nothing and the wounds on her side, her back, and any bruises that her body held, smoked, and sizzled before finally disappearing from her skin.

Letting out a huff of held breath, Charlie let the weakness in her knees take over, and she squatted down on the floor, hands grasping the porcelain sink to hold her up.

She didn’t know what the hell she was, she just knew that she wasn’t normal. She wasn’t a killer and that separated her from the monsters she hunted, at least in her book, but she didn’t know what she was.

It took nearly an hour to come back from whatever the hell that was, a full hour to get dressed again and have the energy to step out and find something to eat that wasn’t a fast-food place. She settled on a little bar and grill down the road a mile.

It felt good walking, getting out, stretching her legs for something other than running from danger or towards it, but as she entered the bar, a familiar scent hit her. It was like the whole place was filled with it, like he had rubbed himself over everything, but it was almost like a drug, and she was the addict. It wasn’t hard to find him in the crowd.

He stood by a small table in the back, beer resting on its sticky top, but he wasn’t drinking it, even when he brought it to his lips, she could tell it was fake. His throat didn’t swallow, he didn’t really move his lips, just rested the opening against it and pretended.

What he did do was look up as soon as she got into view, as if he knew she was in the room. His eyes went wide, his breathing picked up and he slowly stood to his full height, now wearing a very form-fitting tee-shirt that displayed every muscle he had, and Charlie shivered.

She glanced around the room looking for an out, but there was nothing, no place to go, no way to get out of his line of sight, and that’s when he moved. She braced herself as that scent drew closer, fought against letting her eyes flutter close, and drew in a deep breath through her nose. The very wrong thing to do. It only drew him in, made her want him, and that was something new.

She hadn’t wanted the physical touch of another person, man or woman, in a very long time, not since… not since the night she set the house on fire, that this weird, protective, healing power presented itself. But this one… this one she wanted more than anything.

He stopped not more than five feet away, chest rising and falling at a rate that was faster than normal, and Charlie could see the way the heat flushed his cheeks. He wasn’t embarrassed, he was… what was he?

“Hi,” his voice was steady despite his appearance, though it held a hint of holding back.

“Hey,” she managed without seeming too nervous. And why was she nervous, she was a hunter? She killed things stronger than this guy. “I see you made it safely back to town.”

“And you must have found the Edison. You look better, a little more rested.” His smile was nice, friendly, and had her relaxing before she knew what the hell she was doing. He held out his hand, something she took without a second thought and he led her back to the table. “Can I get you anything?”

“Actually, I came looking for food.”

“You came to the right place if you like burgers, they make the best.” He moved to his side of the table, started playing with the label on the bottle and smiled like a shy little boy. “I’m Derek.”

“Charlie,” she replied happily and managed to catch a waitress on the way by to order a burger and a beer, because meat sounded fantastic. They were both quiet for a few before Derek let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

Charlie only laughed, which felt good because it had been a long time since she had done anything of the sort. “For?”

“I’m usually more of an introvert. I’m not sure how to do this.” He certainly didn’t look shy, but people came in all shapes and sizes, and mindsets.

She had no clue what she was doing either, but the draw to him was something she couldn’t ignore. “It’s okay, so am I.”

They enjoyed the silence of each other’s company for hours, occasionally making small talk, and long enough for the music to start. It was the slow dance that finally gave Derek the courage to ask her to the floor, and knowing him, getting to know him was what let her slide her hand into his. 

He slipped his arm around her waist, hand pressed against the small of her back as he held her to him, dancing slow in almost a high school way, as if he was waiting for the chaperone to come and separate them, but even with the distance between their bodies, aside from their hips, Charlie could feel the jolts each time they swayed too close.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized again, and this time Charlie narrowed her eyes at him. She could tell that he’d been hurt, emotionally, too many times, and it showed in the words he let slip out. She stepped closer, connecting them now up to the chest, or at least her chest as she stared up at him. The room began to grow hazy, the scent of him overwhelming and intoxicating. “This is…”

“Different?” She smiled, but it soon faded. “What are you?”

Not who, but what, and Derek stilled, his whole body tensed. “What?”

“I know you’re not human,” she gave him a small smile, a shy one, slipped her fingers between his instead of the childish way he was holding hers, and tugged it between them, letting him feel her heart. “Your scent…”

“I’m a…” he let out a long breath, bit his lips as his brows furrowed, and leaned in closer, “a werewolf,” and he shook with the confession. Charlie smiled at him, a real one this time because it would only be her luck that she found herself paired with a wolf. It was his fingers tracing her jaw that had her eyes locked on his green ones. “You’re not entirely human yourself.”

“That’s the problem,” she sighed, slipping back, “I don’t know what I am.”

Derek took only a moment to look around, to take in the people in the bar with them, the _humans_ that surrounded them, and stepped back, tugging on their still intertwined hands. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“And go where? You can’t be the only werewolf in town, how do I know I’m safe?” It was an honest question, and she wasn’t at all scared because there was still the matter of the gun that was holstered by her ankle. Derek’s full blown smile instantly put her at ease, and she had no idea why, but the scent around him intensified.

“I could never hurt you,” he barely whispered it above the noise in the bar, but she heard it, loud and clear. Charlie gave him just a slight nod, a minute movement of her head, and he tugged her out of the crowd and into the silence of the night.

They walked quietly, as if they had known each other forever. There was just such a familiarity there that Charlie had no explanation for it, nor did she want one, human contact, even from a werewolf was suddenly something she desired, no… needed, and she wasn’t giving it up because of a technicality.

“So, you don’t know what you are?” He asked softly, bringing her hand up as they moved, playing with the tips of her fingers.

“No,” her answer was just as soft, but she knew he heard it. There wasn’t a need to be any louder. “I was sixteen when it first happened, the itching under my skin, the heat in my veins, and then the house was up in flames, and I was trapped inside. I walked out without a scratch, just stepped through them like they couldn’t touch me, but my foster parents weren’t so lucky.”

“You don’t seem broken up about them.” He was smart, but it could have been the chemo signals she was giving off too, and she shrugged.

“They weren’t good people.” Charlie stopped, turning quickly to him and grasped a hold of his shirt, fisting the material in her hand as she leaned in closer, drawing in a deep breath as she pressed her nose to his chest. Derek chuckled, a sound that vibrated through him. “Why do you smell like that?”

“I have a theory about that,” but his voice was lusty, breathless, and his fingers rested under her chin, gently tipping her head back as he stared at her with bright blue eyes.

“You’re an omega?”

“No, a beta in a local pack, but my past isn’t…” Derek moved to look away, but her hand reached up, touching his cheek, stilling him. “I was sixteen and stupid when it happened.”

“It’s okay, I’m not exactly a pack animal myself,” she smiled and that seemed to ease him back into relaxing. Derek let the fingers on her chin brush along her cheek. “What’s your theory?”

“That the scent is stronger at my neck,” he sighed, “at my pulse points,” and his hand stopped, wrist exposed right next to her nose and Charlie turned into it. Derek’s breath hitched, almost like she had stolen it from him, but it was the low hum that escaped her the closer she got that had his heart racing. He closed his eyes when she grabbed a hold of his arm, just above where her nose was, but it was the feeling of her lips kissing there, teeth grazing, that had his eyes closing tightly. “Wolves can scent other wolves, but never… Never had I been able to pick up someone who wasn’t in my pack, not so strongly. I just… I just don’t want to freak you out.”

“I think this is as freaked as I’m going to get,” Charlie laughed against his arm and Derek let out a small rumble, one that had her standing back from him, eyes blazing with the multiple colors of fire.

Derek’s bright blue eyes were wide, taking her in, and he licked his lips, showing her the blunt canines he was barely containing. He curled them back as her scent bloomed with lust, and longing and he took a sudden step forward, captured her cheeks with his hands and kissed her solidly on the mouth.

It started out hard and demanding, but she gave in, let him have control as soon as his lips touched, and that eased him into something a little more tender, still full of passion. Derek let her feel everything, putting himself into that kiss as her hands went to the hem of his shirt, pushing it out of the way so that she could feel the skin under it. Her fingers burned against his already warm skin. Werewolves ran hot, but whatever she was smoldered.

He let her go only to strip the shirt from his skin, grab her by the waist, trying not to break the kiss as her legs locked around his hips and he backed her up against a nearby tree. The rough bark and the strength of one arm held her tightly to him, as he let his hand run up from the top of her jeans along her abs to cup her breast, thumb caressing over her hardening nipple.

He let out a groan as she pressed harder against him, his cock swelling as he rubbed against the heat between her legs. Derek’s lips left her mouth, ran along her cheek, and down to her neck, kissing along the line of taut skin as she tilted it to the side to give him better access. Her fingers tightened in his hair as he drew in her scent.

He wanted her, wanted to take her right there in the middle of the public park, strip her bare and have every inch of her, but senses and needs were never the same, and drawing on the self-control he had taught himself, he drew back, green eyes still glowing bright with power. Charlie looked at him with half-lidded eyes and drew in through her parted lips.

“My place or yours?” She grinned, as if she had known what he was thinking and gently, Derek put her on her feet.

“Mine is away from people.”

“Far?”

“No, five minutes, maybe.”

“Okay.”

~~~~~

Slipping into Derek’s loft, the top floor of an old industrial building wasn’t as terrifying as she thought it would be. Her mind had raced all the way over, thoughts of how dangerous that could be flooded her with every breath, but the moment she stepped into the room, the second the sliding door was closed behind her, everything faded away.

His lips were on hers again, strong arms wrapped around her body as he lifted her up, and his hand slid down her thigh to her knee, hinting that she needed to wrap around him, and she did, locking her ankles behind him as her thighs hugged his waist.

Derek carried her to his bed, a comfortable king that lay to the right-hand corner, exposed and open to the rest of the loft, but Charlie didn’t care, especially when he laid her down, pressing against her with a weight that was foreign yet suddenly familiar. He broke the kiss, loomed over her as he stared into her eyes as they shined bright blue with power.

“Are you sure?” He whispered, as if this were suddenly the most terrifying thing in the world, and all Charlie could do as a reply was nod.

Derek sat back on his heels, grabbed for the shirt he had managed to haphazardly put on--inside out--while rushing to get away from the park, and stripped it off. Charlie couldn’t help but lick her lips, admire for a moment, and then slowly she reached out. Her fingers traced the skin just above the waist of his jeans, across his abs before she flattened her hands on his skin, feeling the solid muscles twitch under her touch.

Derek breathed in suddenly, holding his breath as she explored, sliding up and over each peaked nipple which drew a gasp of sudden shock through his noise as he closed his eyes and gave into the feeling.

Charlie pushed up enough to lick out and taste him, tongue flicking at his right nipple only long enough to draw another gasp before his hand was in her hair holding her still. She took that as what it was, an invitation to do it again, and this time she didn’t hold back. Teeth, and tongue, and fingertips, all caressed his body as he let out small moans and whispers that only spurred her on and before Derek could blink, he found himself lying on his back, with Charlie above him.

She wanted nothing more than his scent, the noises he made, the feel of his movements under her, and by the time she had kissed her way down to his navel, she was topless, his fingers having dragged the fabric from her skin. Derek was the one that sat up this time, hands tight on her upper arms, drawing her mouth to his and away from the sweat-soaked skin she had been kissing.

He needed to kiss her, to have her mouth on his and he didn’t hold back as he brought her to him, lavishing her mouth with his tongue, dipping in as his fingers fumbled with the button on her jeans. It had gone on too long--and not long enough--before he couldn’t take it anymore. He needed her under him, around him, buried deep in the heat of her body, and she didn’t protest at the sudden flurry of movements, the way they both scrambled to undress.

Derek barely broke the kiss before he was laying her back again, eyes locked in wonder at the flickers of red, orange, and yellow in her irises, and he gently reached down between them, separating her lips to press the head of his cock gently in just at her entrance.

She whispered his name, eyes glancing down at the connection point, and with parted lips, wide eyes, and a gasp of breath, she nodded.

He was gentle, a slow glide in as much as he could, even as she stiffened and moaned when he brought his lips down to meet hers again, swallowing the sound with a soft kiss. He let his eyes flutter closed, concentrating on the feel of her wrapped around him and his head dropped to her shoulder while his back arched up with the motion of their bodies.

Her fingers curled into his muscles, slipping along his skin, pulling at his ass as she rose up to meet him, legs once again wrapped around his hips, opening up, inviting him deeper and while Derek wanted to hold on as long as possible, the overwhelming scent of her lust combined with the sweat of her skin, and the very essence of who and what she was overpowering. He was barely in control when he felt the tell-tale tingle at the base of his spine.

“Oh, God,” he managed to whisper out as she clenched around him, a small _oh_ escaping her, one that rose in volume as another wave of her orgasm ripped through her until she was clinging tight to him inside and out.

Derek growled, a low noise that started in his chest and vibrated through him, making him clench his teeth as he fought off the need to show his dominance, to claim her as his own right then and there. While his baser instincts were taking over, he had just enough sense of himself to know that there was no way she’d want that, not now, but the thought of it, the very notion of feeling her skin beneath his teeth as he bit down sent him reeling.

“I not…” He shook his head to finish his sentence as his lips separated from hers once again, and it took all he had to open his eyes when her hands rested on his cheeks. He was pressed in as far as he could go, skin to skin, so deep that he was barely swaying but that was still enough, because he was right on the edge.

She nodded at him, as if she couldn’t find the words herself, gave him permission to let go, to give in and with three quick thrusts, knees widening to keep her as close as he could, he stiffened, mouth suddenly finding hers again, and he whined into her, shocks flowing through his body as he tried to go with the way he pulsed, released, and suddenly he was praying that his heart restarted after she was done with him.

He took a deep breath against her mouth, before giving two light kisses and rested his forehead against hers. It took a few moments, a few long, leisurely moments before he found the strength to pry his lids open to glance down at her.

Charlie was staring at him, searching his face, looking for anything that might tell her that he thought this was a mistake, but a small smile raised on her lips the moment their eyes met, and Derek couldn’t hold back the need to kiss her again.

“You’re beautiful,” was the only thing he could whisper that would make any sense, because there were a million and a half things that his mind was spewing that he knew shouldn’t leave his mouth.

“So are you.” Her reply was nervous, but it said everything he was feeling. She was having the same issue he was, finding the words for what came next.

He closed his eyes the moment he softened enough to slip from her body, and it was a feeling he hated, longing to be back inside her, to keep that connection, but her light gasp had him smiling, still thinking along the same lines.

“Do you need anything?” He whispered against her ear as she wrapped her arms around him, drawing him closer, letting him be the weight that held her down, and she shook her head ever so slightly. He decided to brave it, since she looked about as awake as he felt. “Stay… please.”

That got her to open her eyes wide and release him enough to blink uncertainty at him. “You sure?”

“I can’t have you anywhere else.” His admittance was as much of a shock to him as it was to her, but she did nothing but run the tips of her fingers over the scratchy feel of his stubble, something he had shaved a bit between the roadside meeting and the club. “That was… I’m sorry, that was…”

“No, I’m…” she drew in a breath, which did nothing but press her body closer to his. “I’d like that.”

It brought a smile to his face, something he realized he hadn’t done in a long time yet felt so right with her next to him. In fact, the whole day had been the same, from the moment he saw her on the road, there had been a smile every time he thought of her.

He spent a while letting the feel and the scent of her fill every spot in his mind and body, stemming off sleep as long as he could as she lay dreaming beside him. He was on the edge of it when she shifted, breathing picking up as her heart started to race. The feeling of heat that came from her body intensified as she fought what seemed like a nightmare, and he panicked only for a moment before he slowly moved to settle more against her.

“Charlie,” he pressed his lips against her ear, felt her jump at the contact, and her name, but her hand searched him out, gripping tightly on his fingers. “It’s okay, it’s just a nightmare. Come on,” she turned towards him, body wrapping tightly around his, “wake up.”

A sob escaped her before she could manage control and she buried her face against his neck, nose right against his pulse and Derek repressed the possessive sound he knew was building at the action she was taking. He suddenly had the most frightening thought of how he knew he couldn’t live without her again, that the very idea of her not being in his arms made his other half bristle with anger, but he held it off.

“You smell agitated,” her voice whispered against his skin, blowing warmly but chilled enough to raise goosebumps.

“It’s nothing,” he sighed because that was a bit too deep to get into right now. It was her sudden shift to a sitting position that had Derek lying back, staring up at her in wonder, as her eyes blazed with the fire she held within her. “Charlie?”

“I’m sorry,” she stood quickly, fumbled from the bed, and scrambled for her panties, before grabbing her jeans and hopping into them. Standing there in only those, topless, braless, she turned to him. “Stay here.” It was definitely an order, one that had his wolf suddenly threatened. “Please.”

“Wait,” Derek quickly followed her lead, getting dressed in only his jeans, but by the time he buttoned them, she was at the door, fully prepared to head out. He wrapped his fingers around her arm, turning her enough that he could do the one thing he wanted more than anything. His hands cupped her cheek, his lips pressed a branding kiss on hers, and the world stopped if only for an instant before he was leaning his forehead on hers. “What’s going on?”

“There’s something,” she glanced at the windows before finding his eyes again, “there’s something outside, close, dangerous, and I have to go.”

“Is that what you do? You hunt them?” He wasn’t shocked, he knew she was a hunter the moment they met, he could smell the gun oil on her skin, but this was different. “Jesus,” he stepped back letting her go because he was suddenly so familiar with everything about her that he knew just what she was. “You’re a hellhound.”

“A… what?” She blinked at him, confused, but completely focused and Derek put a few feet between them.

“Do you find yourself moving towards creatures, shifters like us that are close to death?”

She debated a bit, “sometimes, but mostly…” with a deep breath, she straightened, confident in herself. “I hunt what hunts me, Derek, it’s how I survive.”

“And something’s hunting you now?”

“Yes, it’s been following me for months, across the states.” She closed her eyes, waited for his backlash, for when he told her to leave, to get out, cursed her for bringing this to him, but there was nothing but silence. When she chanced opening her eyes, he was standing before her fully dressed except that one boot he was now pulling on. “What are you doing?”

“Do you know what we are?”

“You’re a werewolf,” she shrugged like it was the stupidest question she ever heard.

“No, what _we_ are?”

“Insane.”

Derek smirked at that one, but moved to her again, hands on her arms until he could run them up to rest on her neck. “Mates.”

“Oh,” she took it in stride until it finally caught up with her, eyes going wide. “ _Oh_!” She was suddenly shaking her head. “No. No, that’s not…” Charlie backed away from his touch, holding a finger up. “That’s not possible. I mean… maybe, but not…” she wasn’t freaking out, she was processing. “That’s not… This.”

Derek tried, he really did, but the grin on his face wouldn’t budge, not as she tented her fingers over her nose, not as she paced just a few feet away, and certainly not when he pulled her in and kissed her breathless.

“Yes,” was the word he managed to breath out between kisses, until he released her lips, not bothering to take his hands from her. “What hunts you, hunts us.”

“You can’t,” she pushed at him. “You can’t do that.” She growled at him, something definitely more human than anything else, something frustrated. “Ugh, I can see this is going to be an ongoing argument.”

“Ongoing?” Derek was the one shocked this time. Had she? Did she just…?

“Yes, ongoing as in the future, because I can’t give you up.” She hated to admit it, and without his senses he could see it clearly written on her face, but that emotion disappeared as fast as it showed up before she turned to the door. “Can we go, this thing is really starting to get under my skin.”

“You can feel it?”

He followed her out, down to the elevator and out the front door of the building. They were just on the edge of the preserve when she paused and took in her surroundings.

“Like ants under my skin.”

Derek reached out to take her hand the moment she stepped forward. “I can smell it.” Her brow went up, like she was asking him a simple question and Derek nodded. “East.”

It didn’t take long for the two of them to track it, and less time for Derek to understand what she meant when she said she hunted what hunted her because the thing that stood before them resembled nothing close to human.

Its skin was pale, ashen with death, sunk in around the face, black bruising surrounded its eyes and its lips were pulled back from a row of very sharp teeth. Its bony arms looked as if they were only skin and bones and the only clothing it had on, a pair of ripped, tattered dress pants barely hung from its hips. Ribs were exposed, but the look in its dead eyes told Derek that it was something not easily defeated.

“Mmm,” came a noise from its mouth. “Mate.”

Derek shifted at that moment, at the sound of the threat, suddenly in his beta form, fangs, claws, bright blue eyes all evident, and while he thought Charlie might be terrified of him now, she did nothing but look down at his hand, flick her fingers out and Derek saw the moment the sharp, black claws snicked out. Her eyes took on that look of fire, but she never drew the gun he knew she had on her.

“Not touching him,” the way her voice echoed it was as if there were two of her in her one body, and Derek shook with the power that radiated off her. “He’s mine.”

“Mmm, flesh.” It attacked, letting out a wail that shook the forest and the birds took flight from the trees.

All hell broke loose as Derek tried to block the creature from getting to her, but it was smart, even if it were on the verge of death. He felt the moment the claws swiped against his stomach, the way they dug into the meat, and nicked the bones beneath it. He felt the blood draining from him, but he didn’t stop the fight.

It wasn’t until his body had said enough that he fell back, or more like fell to the ground, but as he struggled to stay away, body ravaged with slices and claw marks that he watched Charlie take over. She was glowing with fire, much like Parrish in his hellhound form, but her clothes weren’t burning off, and in a way she reminded him of Kira’s fox, armor that helped protect her.

It didn’t take long for her to overpower the thing, holding it down as she raged above it and let one fiery fist break through its ribs to rip out a black and decaying heart. She didn’t have fangs, she didn’t growl at it, she merely dropped the heart and took a swing at its head, slicing through the skin and bone to remove it from the body.

He was fading, he could feel it, but his eyes were on her, the way her shoulders slumped, how her eyes closed at the exhaustion. He breathed in as deep as he could, the pain fading to cold as he fought against the darkness, and that was when she looked at him, eyes still alight with power.

She moved closer, taking in the mortal wounds of his body before she gently lifted his head to rest on her lap. She didn’t say anything, almost as if she wasn’t sure she recognized him above the scent bond they had created.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, not having the energy to get above that, and she tilted her head, as if she were unsure of his words. “I just found you.”

That part she did understand, and her eyes roamed over the damage. With a gentle stroke to his cheek, Derek felt the way her hand slide down, pressing on the wounds enough to make him gasp, but that was the moment he felt it.

A strange heat flooded his system, like he was burning up, and panic took over remembering what Parrish did with the dead chimeras, lighting their bodies on fire putting them at rest, but her hand held him steady, not that he had the strength to move before his world started to fade.

The last thing he heard before darkness took him was the sound of a scream, one that filled his senses, and then…

Nothing.

~~~~~

The face that hovered over him when he came to was not the one he expected. The grimace that marred Stiles’ usually animated features was aimed right at him as the younger man patted his cheek, but upon realizing that Derek was coming to, the frown turned to a smile.

“There he is,” chipper as always, Stiles finally sat back, giving him space to breathe. “Thought we lost you there for a few, big guy.”

“Charlie?” was all Derek managed to get out, and when he shifted to start getting to his feet, Stiles managed to push him down again.

“Is that her name? Just sit still.” All of the lanky man’s weight was on him, holding him steady. “She’s good,” he shifted just enough to let Derek see Scott and Theo leaning over her still form. “Unconscious, but good. Pulse is steady, breathing’s normal. What the hell did you do?”

“Do’no,” Derek mumbled, letting his body relax, not even threatened by his pack being so close to her. “She…”

“Yeah, I can totally see what _she_ did. It’s all over the ground.” Stiles let him loose, plunked down beside him, and ran a hand through his hair before turning back to Derek. “You scared the hell out of me, fucker.”

“I was dying,” Derek smirked, but then the sudden knowledge of what had happened really did have him sitting up and inspecting the fact that his shirt was torn to shreds but his body was completely healed. His hands roamed over his own stomach, above his heart, down his arms. There was nothing but clear skin. “She healed me.”

“What is she?” Theo sat by Charlie’s feet, his head tilted just a bit, but making no attempt to move in on her at all before his eyes went right to Derek’s, “besides your mate.”

“Your what?” Stiles blinked, narrowed his eyes, and scoffed. “So, you and Liam… Hunters? Really?”

“She’s a…” Derek started.

“Hellhound.” Scott finally spoke up, eyes moving to meet Derek’s, “she smells like Parrish.” That got a low rumble from him, a warning to Scott, but the alpha raised his hands. “She smells like smoke.”

“No,” Derek started, but it was Stiles’ laugh that got him to glance up at the human beside him. “She doesn’t.”

“That’s because all you can scent is the bond,” Theo huffed, got up and moved over to the thing on the ground.

“Move,” Derek glared at Stiles, who raised his hands and scooted out of the way as Derek got to his feet, still quite weak, and made his way over to Charlie before he sat down hard on the ground beside her. He gathered her in his arms, bringing her up enough to press his nose into her neck to draw in her scent. He whispered against her skin, low enough for only her to hear it. “Come back to me.”

He stayed that way, not bothering to move as Scott watched him with worry. He could feel the alpha’s eyes on him, but he didn’t care, he just needed to hold her. In the background, below the sound of her steady heartbeat, Derek could hear Stiles and Theo arguing about what to do with the body and its various parts, before the sudden uptick of panic set in and her pulse raced.

She pushed at him, human nails digging into his arm as she squirmed to get space, but Derek didn’t just let her go, he released his hold a little at a time until she was looking up at him with wide eyes filled with wonder.

“Oh, God,” she whispered, “it worked.”

And then she was wrapped around him, arms around his neck, straddling his lap as she held on for dear life.

“Wait, what worked?” Scott interrupted, and Derek smiled when Charlie turned to look at the alpha.

“Charlie,” Derek whispered, “this is Scott, he our…”

“Alpha,” it was barely audible, but the acknowledgement was there.

“This is my mate,” Derek swallowed at the word, still in disbelief, “Charlie.”

“Hey,” Scott smiled, but he didn’t extend a hand, knew how volatile the connection was, and Charlie sank further into Derek’s embrace.

“Oh… my God, this is so gross!” Stiles’ voice interrupted the introduction. “Derek, tell your mate to come clean up her mess.”

Leave it to Stiles to not be affected by the change in pack dynamics at all, but that ease is what brought a smile to Derek’s face, and he closed his eyes, basking in the feel of her around him.


	3. Theo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo's gotten himself into it this time, and the only one to get him out seems to be a hunter his far more connected to than he'd like. She's not like any other that he's met, and that's almost more terrifying than anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to keep going with these until I run out of ideas.  
> NOTE: There's mentions of the previous chapters (ei, Liam/Dakota, Derek/Charlie) so it follows the same AU... for now.  
> Also, this one is a bit different than the easy going Theo in the first chapter, you'll see why.

Theo

He blinked against the light, groaned as he turned on his side to raise his arm up and block it more, but that only brought on the pain in his side, the pull of stitches. He tried to draw in a deep breath but his ribs hurt, halting the action before he decided staying still was the best course of action. 

Forcing his eyes open, he took a minute to adjust to the fluorescent lights overhead, and shivered against the cold, hard floor. The only thing that separated him from the concrete was a thin blanket and he reached behind him -- with effort -- to wrap it over his bare shoulders.

Why was he half naked? Better yet, where the hell was he?

As the focus slowly came back, Theo took in what he could without moving. He knew he was hurt, which was weird because he should have healed by now, but the feeling of cracked ribs and stitched up gashes in his side told him otherwise, he just didn’t remember how. 

The cell he was in, and it was definitely a cell, smelled of wet hay, dirt, and blood, but not much else… so this was a new location for whoever had him. There weren't any other sounds, no animals, no people, at least not in the immediate vicinity. He must have also hit his head because trying to use his heightened senses, especially his hearing hurt like hell. 

With a quick exhale, he relaxed the best he could, letting the warmth the blanket helped keep in the heat, and he soon found it was hard to keep his eyes open, or his body ready for a fight. He prayed that Liam was safe, remembering that the beta had gone against his wishes and followed, but he didn’t recall if he had caught up by the time whatever put him here had happened.

He wanted to howl out, to call to his pack, but he wasn’t sure how far away he was, or if they were even looking, and he didn’t have the energy. He would have to figure out how to get out of this on his own. 

Just not yet.

With the strange peace and quiet surrounding him, he gave into the darkness that started to edge in on his vision instead of fighting it. He was going to need all the strength he could get to heal.

~~~~~

The constant sound of metal tapping on metal shook him from his sleep and he groaned as he rolled his head back. The first thought was that Liam was knocking on his door, trying to get his attention, but the cold surface beneath him was a reminder of the fact that he was very much wrong about his current situation.

“Alright!” He snapped, gingerly rolling over on his back as he stared up at the ceiling, most of the fluorescent lights now off. “I’m awake!”

“Good, that means you’re not dead,” the sarcastic tone of a very feminine voice shook him from his irritation, and Theo let the odd feeling of comfort surround him, an odd reaction indeed considering it came from his captor. “And I don’t have to come in there to poke at you.”

“Aren’t you going to kill me anyway?” He growled, still not looking anywhere but the ceiling.

“And waste two hours of a pristine patch job, it’s like you don’t know me at all.” The humor in her tone was unnerving to say the least. He had dealt with hunters who used it to put their captives at ease, to lull them into a false sense of safety before they tortured them, so Theo wasn’t falling for it.

“What do you want?” He sighed, finally shifting to cover up with a blanket.

“I wanted to find out if you were dangerous.” He could almost picture her shrugging, but since he had no clue what she looked like, he just frowned.

“Lady,” he finally moved, pushing up with his left arm, putting weight on that instead of his right where the stitches and bruising from his ribs was more centered. That was when he noticed the door. She was standing in an open door, leaning on the sill, arms crossed, no weapons in hand, and she was… “I…” 

Theo lost his words, as if he were stunned into silence, because it wasn’t just the way she looked -- long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, long sleeved Henley tight against her skin, with skinny jeans and hunting boots, and the brightest blue eyes he had seen that could rival Liam’s -- it was the was she smelled. Crisp, like the icy air when the temperature dropped below freezing in the winter, the scent of a storm in the air, not quite there but raging close by, and she raised a brow at him.

“You’re not convincing me with that whole…” she pointed at him and swirled her finger, “half naked, bruised to hell look. Not only that, but aren’t threats supposed to sound more… threatening? You sound shell-shocked.”

“Who are you?” He shifted to his feet, crouched down, his right arm against his side as he placed his left in front of him, ready to spring. “Where am I?”

“Safe,” she smirked, stepping back out of the doorway and into a hall, but it gave him space to run if he wanted to, the problem was he couldn’t even move. “I need to check those stitches, make sure the wolfsbane is out of your system.”

“Why would I trust you?” 

She cocked her head just a little to the side, eyes roaming over his body, one brow raised in an effort to stem off a smile, or make it look like she was trying to think of a reason, but she simply shrugged, turned towards the right, and disappeared from sight.

Theo knew she hadn’t gone far, the sounds of her footsteps stopping only a few feet down the hall waiting on him and he pushed himself up on unsteady legs, snagging the blanket from the floor to wrap around himself

“Take your time,” she spoke in a unhurried voice, calm and encouraging, something that shook Theo to the bone, but he took a step towards the door, wanting nothing more than to follow her, and the thought of  _ always _ concluding that thought made his heart race. “The wolfsbane isn’t completely out of your system and the ketamine I used to keep you out will make you a little… well, I’m sure you can feel it.”

Theo turned out the door in the direction she had gone, and found himself alone in a short hallway. There were three other doors, all open, all the same as the one he stepped out of, but he trailed after her, locked on to the sound of her heart, one that was steady, never rising, and her scent gave nothing away.

Theo stopped at a crosspoint in the building, left or right, but he pulled the blanket tighter and moved onto the left where her beat was the loudest.

“Where are you taking me?” He kept his voice calm, worked to hide the shake he knew was there and almost passed the room she had stopped in, until her scent hit him again, and his knees nearly gave out.

He leaned against the sill, one hand holding him up, half his body hidden by the wood, and his half-laden eyes rested on her. In the middle of the room was a small bed, thinner than a twin, made for a single person, and she stood beside it, rolling table barely visible as she waited for him to enter.

Theo didn’t know why the pull was so strong, the need to touch her suddenly so much more, but he forced his way back from the wall and barely managed to stay upright as he entered the room. The fact that he made it to the footboard was a miracle, bracing on it as he looked over the surgical tools on the metal tray.

“You really think I’m going to let you use those on me?” 

She smirked again, a small smile that told him she was doing her best not to get annoyed and turned fully towards him, hands raised to show she was unarmed before taking a step. Theo stiffened, instantly regretting the pull of the stitches, and shook as he waited for her. His first thought was attack, defend, get the hell out, but the moment she touched him, that all fell away.

Her fingers on his shoulders felt so familiar, like a wave of warmth rushing over him, and he gave a quick exhale, almost like had been punched, before those fingers turned to palms and she wrapped her hand around his muscles the best she could. His eyes closed, not fighting the feeling at all, betraying the self-preservation he always prided himself in having before giving in as she tugged on him. 

His feet moved, taking him around the side of the bed, and he let her push him gently to the mat, hands resting on his collar bone, eyes still nearly closed, but this close to her, all he wanted to do was press his face against her stomach and drink her in. He didn’t even have the will to stop his hands from coming up and grasping her hips, or the low moan that escaped when he did just that, nose pressed against the fabric of her shirt, taking in the mix of his blood, her skin, and his scent. 

It was intoxicating.

“Easy, tiger,” she whispered, fingers suddenly running through his hair, petting down his head to the back of his neck, and Theo huffed out a few breaths through his nose. “Lie back.”

He went without question, without so much as a hint of a fight until his head hit the pillow and his body gave in, craving the softness of the mattress below him.

He snagged her hand as she went to move away, fingers gripping hers in an attempt to keep her close, but his eyes were a bright gold, either hoping to scare her into staying put or push her into running away, but she did neither, she just looked him over.

“What are you doing?”

“I need to get the stitches out before you heal completely, and then… I have something that will help.” She slipped away easier than he had hoped, leaving him exhausted enough to only watch her step over to the tray. When she returned it was with a small pan, a pair of suture scissors, and a capped needle.  _ That _ had Theo shifting away, but she set them on the bed, placed her hands on the mat and knelt down. “I’m not going to hurt you…”

“Theo,” he whispered, breathing heavy at the feel of his ribs knitting back together, the cartilage healing. 

“I know who you are,” she grinned as if her having that over him was the world’s best secret.

“Yeah,” he laughed, and it hurt like a bitch. “So, you have one over on me.”

She picked up the scissors, gently slipped one side between his skin and the nylon material, and clipped the first one. “Only twenty-three to go.”

“Your name,” he closed his eyes, fingers searching to find anything to grab onto, which happened to be her shirt, “tell me.” He heard the clip of three more as his body relaxed. “Please.”

He heard her little chuckle before her hand rested against his stomach, flat with fingers spread wide, and suddenly, her warm breath caressed his cheek with a soft whisper. “Rylie.” And then it was gone.

He faded in and out of consciousness as she went about her task, the clip, tug, and tickle of the material leaving his skin barely kept him aware of his surroundings, but it was the prick of the needle that had his eyes wide, his lips pulled back in a warning, and his sights on her.

Rylie stood, hand still braced on his body, and bit her lip. “This might hurt.”

That was all the warning he had before every muscle in his body tightened, and heat raced through him. It wasn’t painful, just uncontrolled, and Theo hated it, but he knew what it was doing -- whatever she injected him with -- for the gash in his side was no more than a memory, the bruising and broken parts of his body gave him no more pain, and when it faded, he didn’t dare move, arms and legs feeling like jelly.

“Sorry, I thought if I told you sooner, you might freak out, and it’s not something you want to fight.”

“What the hell was that?”

Rylie moved about the room, staying in his eye line as she cleaned up, poured steaming water from a teapot into a bowl and grabbed a towel. When she returned to him, it was to resume the same position as before, kneeling beside the bed.

“There’s no showers here, so,” she raised a steaming towel, “this will have to do until we can get you home.” He felt his muscles tighten as she brought the fabric down on his skin and started to gently wash away the blood. “To answer your question, it was a liquefied version of the nine herbs. My father thought it would be useful in our line of work.”

“You’re a hunter?” It didn’t need to be said, but it escaped him anyway. He knew just who he was with, it was in her stance, her voice, the way she looked at him. Suddenly, he had to know, and he reached out, grasping her wrist. “Why are you doing this? Where am I?”

“Honestly,” she dropped the cloth, “I asked that myself, but there’s…” She shook her head. “You need to get away, I can’t let anything happen…” Her eyes slowly came up, locking on his. “To you.”

“Can you scent me?” Theo shook. He had to know, needed to make sure what he was feeling was real. The sound of her voice, the way her touch made him feel, the very way she smelled. She took a moment but her reply to him was obvious, even if it was just a curt nod. “I don’t… I don’t understand.”

“You and me both,” she pffted, and twisted her wrist out of his hold. “You took on seven hunters, Theo, and they almost killed you, but…” her pause was full of pain, “when I touched you, I knew, I just  _ knew _ .” Rylie rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. “We’re twenty miles from the compound, nearly a hundred from Beacon Hills… and we can’t stay here.”

“Then we’ll go.” Theo shifted on the bed, sitting up, bracketing her in with his thighs as she continued to kneel before him. He reached out, letting his fingers run over her cheeks, down over her shoulders until he could slip them under her arms. With a gentle tug up, he had her straddling his lap, staring longingly into her eyes as his fingers tangled in her hair. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

“You can’t stop them,” she sighed, leaning in to press her forehead against his. 

“Maybe not, but my pack can.”

~~~~~

Derek looked up as the door slid open, he glanced over at Charlie, who sat calmly on the spiral staircase, then at Stiles who was fiddling with a book at the coffee table, eyes now on the door when Theo stepped through, a woman in tow.

“Oh, what now?” Stiles grouched, getting to his feet.

Theo closed the door, brought Rylie down the stairs to the middle of the room, still holding her hand, and stood tall in the middle of the floor.

“This is Rylie,” he glanced at her, “she saved my life.”

“You’ve been gone for a week, Theo,” Derek moved down to face him, “Scott and Liam have been all over the preserve looking for you. Where the hell have you been?”

“About a hundred miles away,” he shrugged, “literally. Like I said, Rylie saved me. Now we need to do that same for her.”

“Okay,” Derek nodded, looking over the way the woman stood, before he narrowed his eyes at Theo. “She’s a hunter, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Rylie answered through clenched teeth, “ _ she _ is.”

“Give me a break!” Stiles stepped up beside Derek and rolled his eyes as the dark-haired man blocked his way. Stiles pushed his arm down, glaring before he turned to the couple in front of him. “Next thing you’re going to tell us is that she’s your…” Theo was never one to be shy, so the blush shocked Stiles. “She is.” He tented his hands over his mouth and shook his head. “You three have got to find someone beside  _ hunters _ to mate with!” He suddenly went still, blushing himself. “That sounded so wrong.”

“Are you going to help or not?” Theo snapped. 

Stiles threw his hands in the air and shrugged. “Why not, but first,” his nose cringed. “You both need a shower.”

Charlie giggled from the steps, and Stiles rounded on her, pointing playfully. She ignored him to address the new hunter. “I have clothes that might fit you.” 

“Thank you.” Rylie smiled, and Theo ran a hand down his neck, eyes on Derek.

“Go,” the beta gestured, “I’ll bring you a change of clothes.”

~~~~~

Theo stood back, pressing against the wall furthest away from her as Rylie stripped out of stiff, blood-covered clothes, and he did his best to keep in control. The shower was going, steam filled the room, and he breathed in through his noise, taking in that crisp scent, the tang of sweat that clung to her skin, and the light hint of his own, but he couldn’t suppress the noise that escaped him.

Rylie grinned over her shoulder, arms crossed loosely over her chest as her ruined jeans fell to the floor. She stood in only purple panties, dark in some spots from battle wounds and grime, but as Theo watched, she reached down, hooked a thumb through, and let them drop.

He shook his head, a small smile on his lips, as she winked and stepped behind the frosted glass.

“You can join me, you know. There’s no sense in wasting water.”

Theo chuckled, “no, that might be a bad idea.”

She peeked out around the corner and looked him over, standing there in only boxers, arms crossed over his impressive chess ever so casual. “Keeping with the theme of bad ideas, Theo, this one is probably not the worst.”

He nodded, pushed off the wall and made for the stall, dropping his boxers along the way, but stepping into her space was something entirely different. He was a playboy when it came to sex, casual and almost dismissive except when it came to Liam and Dakota, their combined scent was like a drug, or it had been... until now.

Ryle stood under the spray, back to him as Theo mustered up the courage to move closer. The moment she leaned her head under the spray, reached her arms out to the wall and exposed the skin on her neck was the instant that Theo stopped thinking.

He moved up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pressed his nose to her neck, taking her in. “Fuck, you smell good.”

“I hope that’s a good thing,” she sighed, letting her head fall back on his shoulder.

“Very good,” his lips caressed her skin, and the sounds she made from that had blunt points of his fangs extended. He caught her earlobe between his teeth and breathed softly through his nose. “Rylie, I…”

He wanted her, there was no denying that, but there was just something about the timing, about the place, and he released her, settled his hands on her hips and pushed back, allowing her to turn in his arms. His blue eyes showed his confusion at the sudden change in his behavior. Sex was just something he did, why was this so hard?

“I can’t,” he shook his head, as if that would explain everything, and shrugged. “I want to, I do… but I can’t.”

“How about we start with something a little…” she rested her arms on his shoulders, hands in his hair and moved to press against him. Theo wrapped her in an embrace, feeling her naked flesh against his, inwardly hoping it would spur him on, but he just wanted to stand there with her, feel her. It was her kiss that brought those thoughts to a halt, the way her lips felt against his, and he leaned into it, giving her control until she backed away. “We don’t need to go fast, Theo. We both know what this is.”

“Take my time?” He chuckled, “that would be a first.” 

“I need it too.” She kissed him gently once more, but the only distance between them when they parted was barely a breath. 

“My hunter,” he sighed out, a cheesy line if anyone had ever heard it, but it made her heart race, and Theo smiled. “Mine.”

And he closed the space between them, drawing in the scent, and taste of her, hoping to never let her go. 


	4. Isaac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isaac never thought in a million years that he would find one mate... let alone Bright and Cara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS: this is a M/M/F pairing... just be warned.

Isaac

He rolled his blue eyes in frustration as he stood with his arms crossed, listening to the ramblings of the shorter deputy as Stiles paced. It wasn’t that everything that left Stiles’ mouth wasn’t valid, but it had been a long night and Isaac was tired.

Really, _really_ tired.

It was simple -- the whole this, that, and the other thing that was going on -- some monster was loose in Beacon Hills and the pack needed to stop them before the hunters caught wind of it and moved in on the territory, which would -- inevitably -- cause more issues then were strictly necessary. So, here they all were, at the edge of the preserve going over the “plan” with most of the pack.

Isaac looked to Scott, who was nodding his head because he wouldn’t ever _not_ agree with Stiles. Turned his attention to Liam, who he had only met last month when he came back to town on a whim, and watched the anger rise in the beta. It seemed to be his default setting, but Isaac couldn’t blame the guy, he was pretty pissed off whenever he had to be out in the woods at night.

Then he moved on to Theo… now this one was interesting. He was sly, leaning back against a tree, arms crossed as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but Isaac watched with a bit of fascination as Theo’s eyes followed a pattern. Left into the forest, right towards the road, and then center, right on Liam’s back, only to do it again.

Anchors certainly were funny creatures.

So, it was just the five of them about to be off and running into the dense forest that surrounded Beacon Hills, and Stiles’ “plan” was to split up which meant one of them was going alone, and Isaac knew exactly who that was.

Him.

Not that he minded, he was good with running alone, he had done it a lot in France, waiting for Argent to come back and check in on him. After Allison’s death, he just couldn’t stay in the area, couldn’t move through the stages of grief while watching Scott do the same thing. They were close, brothers even, but that was too much for him to handle, especially with everything that had gone on in the months before it and the years that followed, but now… here he was, fighting beside them again.

Suddenly, all the talking stopped. There was silence, and all eyes were on him. Guess Stiles was done, guess he explained his little heart away with all he had and… oops, Isaac missed it. So, why were they all looking at him? Even Theo’s pattern had stopped, eyes narrowed, with a comical look on his smirky face that made Isaac suddenly wanted to punch him.

“What?” Isaac whispered, a bit on the aggravated side, and more towards Theo than anyone else, but he was looking right at Stiles.

“You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?” Stiles grumbled -- huffed really -- like a petulant child and this got Liam to turn his head away to hide the smile. Stiles hated to be ignored.

“I did,” he fessed up, because he really did, except -- maybe -- that last part.

“Fine, then we’ll meet back here in an hour.”

And just like that, it was as if the whole team did a “hands in and break on three” thing that they used to be forced to do on the pitch. Isaac closed his eyes, took a steadying breath, and shook his head.

He was back in high school again.

He _hated_ high school.

When he opened his eyes, he was alone in the forest. The sound of the others’ footfalls was the only thing that told them which direction the two pairs had gone off into and he sighed, stuck his hands in his pockets and headed in the opposite direction, essentially northwest.

He wasn’t paying attention, he’d admit that without a second of denial, he was too busy going over everything that had happened since his return. The way Derek had found a mate, _Derek_ of all people, and Theo… which kind of confused him because from what he understood, Theo was a bit of a promiscuous little shit before Rylie came into his life, and now… Isaac shivered at the image in his head.

He had caught them once… almost twice… outside on the balcony at Derek’s loft. It was weird and erotic, and Isaac didn’t want to think about it, but found himself thinking about it more and more. The scent they gave off, even if they weren’t having sex, or more like Theo wasn’t? He was completely clothed but at the same time stripped raw as he brought her to orgasm right there on a thick blanket in the middle of the night.

Isaac stopped, gulped down the suddenly flare of need, and shook himself. Yes, he’d honestly and openly admit that Theo was a mystery of sorts, because… come on, a _chimera_? But he didn’t need to keep picturing his face… or hers.

It was at that moment that Isaac decided he really, _really_ needed to get laid.

And the precise second an arrow pierced his leg.

He went down, hands against his thigh as he held in a scream of pain but holding in anything didn’t stop his eyes from glowing a bright gold as he scanned the area for the shooter. His lips rolled back to expose his fangs and he snapped the arrow in half, pulling it from his muscles, before reaching behind and doing the same with the tip.

He felt the sting before he brought the tip to his nose, knew exactly what was on it before he caught the scent of the wolfsbane poison that coated it. His eyes blurred as he caught the heat signature of a man stepping out of the shadows, followed by a smaller signature behind him. But it was the scent of the two combined that overpowered him.

 _“Jesus,”_ his thoughts hissed out, _“what the hell is that?”_

The man, about his height, nearly six-two, crouched down ten feet away, compound bow in hand, and looked him over. Isaac -- having amazing sight in the dark to start with -- dialed back the night vision to look at him with human eyes. He was gorgeous. Light coffee skin, dark eyes, plump lips, and completely human.

Isaac groaned, the sharp pain of the poison rushed up his leg, heading straight for his heart, and he fell back, head hitting the ground as his clawed hands grasped at his leg, then up to his heart.

“It’s not him.” The man’s deep, sultry voice had Isaac’s heart racing and he shook his head trying to clear the fog it created, but that was about the time he was overwhelmed by the woman’s scent. She hmphed in agreement but shifted to kneel beside him. _She_ was not human. Isaac could instantly scent the wolf in her. “Cara, be careful.”

She rolled her eyes, or from what Isaac could make out of her face beyond the blurred edges of his vision she did. Her bright blue eyes -- omega blue -- turned from Isaac to the man and then back, her hands moving too quickly for Isaac to follow.

“Well, if you’re sure,” the man replied, totally understanding the signs she had given him. “Here.”

Isaac watched the syringe that he passed to her with wide eyes, but the poison had spread too fast for him to protest or even move away before she jabbed the needle into his wounded leg. Isaac opened his mouth to scream, but her hand covered it quickly, drowning out the sound of his howl quite effectively before he was huffing into her palm, and taking in the scent of her as well.

She giggled as he fell back, the fight suddenly going out of him, and Isaac managed to bring his hand up, wrapping it gently around her wrist, but he didn’t force her away, didn’t want to let her go at all actually once his skin touched hers.

Maybe he was reacting to her and not to the man, maybe it was just his wolf seeking her out in his weakest moment, but that was when _he_ shifted closer and Isaac let his eyes close at the scent of him. Smoke, and forest, and… whatever it was brought on the most embarrassing response at the very wrong time and _Cara_ giggled again, which only had Isaac clinging to her hand, still not letting her move from his mouth.

“Okay, not exactly the reaction I expected,” he said with a smile in his voice, and that got Isaac to look up at him, in shock, or something close to it, then down over his own body to see the ridged line of his own erection tenting the loose jeans he wore and he groaned, pulling her hand from his mouth only to lay it on his chest.

“Ugh!” he snapped. “Who the hell are you people?”

“Hunters,” the man grinned, bringing his knee up to rest the bow on as he sat down beside him. “But you’re not the monster we’re looking for.” His dark eyes went to Cara as she did her best to sign with the one free hand she had. “She says you smell different.”

“It’s not me, it’s the two of you,” Isaac snipped, offended.

He pushed up to his elbows, finally letting go of her completely and immediately felt the loss of her skin. He turned to look at her, the scent of raspberries, vanilla, and just a hint of winterberry wafted in his direction causing his eyes to burn a bright gold. She stared at him as her nose flared, taking in whatever new emotion flowed from him and she shook her head, quickly scurrying back.

“Cara?” Her hands went a mile a minute and the man beside him smiled. “Well, this is definitely a predicament.”

“Yeah,” Isaac replied, quickly sitting up, before attempting to get to his feet, only to remain off balance. The man beside him was up and to him in a blink, holding him with both arms wrapped tightly around him. Isaac tried to breathe through his mouth, but that only brought the scent of the man in deeper, almost enough to taste him. He tried to shake him off, but it only had the human holding on tighter. “If you’re hunters, why didn’t you just let the poison run its course?”

“Like I said,” he whispered, as if being any louder would put a wall between them, and at the moment, all Isaac needed to do was lean forward and close the distance to kiss him, and he really, _really_ wanted that to happen. “You aren’t what we’re looking for.”

Out of the corner of their eyes, Cara’s hands were moving in a flurry of motion, one that Isaac didn’t catch. “What did she say?”

“That I was being rude,” he sighed out, as if he had been scolded. “My name is Bright, last not first, and you’re one of the McCall pack, right?”

“Isaac,” he hadn’t meant to admit anything, in fact, he suddenly felt the urge to get away, but there it was right out there in the open, “Lahey.”

“Oh, Derek’s beta.” Bright nodded and slowly released him, as in an inch at a time to make sure Isaac was steady on his feet.

That confused him to no end. Derek? Why would he mention Derek? “You know him?”

“From Mexico, yeah,” Bright nodded, glancing at Cara. “He helped save her life.”

Cara rolled her eyes, which seemed to be her favorite form of communication and shook her head, signing again.

“Alright, alright, don’t get testy,” Bright laughed, “she said that it was more like she saved him. I was there, I think the two of them are full of shit, but they’re both alive so that’s what counts.”

“You should come back with me.” Isaac didn’t even take a moment to think about the words that left his mouth, he just went with his gut. “We need to know what you’re hunting, and maybe Derek…”

“He’s here?” Bright grinned.

“Will be soon,” Isaac nodded. He pulled his cell from his pocket, quickly dialed out, and put it to his ear as Bright stepped away, snatching the bow from the ground, before stepping close to Cara, who’s human blue eyes were still locked on Isaac.

The phone rang twice before Derek picked up.

 _“I thought you were out hunting.”_ Derek’s voice growled over the line.

“Bright and Cara,” was the only thing Isaac said. He needed to hear his reaction.

 _“Where?”_ That snappy reply was full of curiosity, and not fear or anger.

“Right in front of me.”

 _“Bring them to the loft… alone. I’ll call the other and tell them to stay away.”_ Derek quickly stumbled out, but he didn’t hang up, he let out just a little bit more. _“Isaac, be careful.”_

And then the line was silent.

He watched the way that Cara watched him, licked his lips -- a movement she followed with her eyes -- and took a deep breath. “He said to bring you back to his place. So…”

“Alright,” Bright smirked, “our trucks out that way.” Which only gave Isaac a westerly direction. “You and Cara can make it there faster on foot than I can.”

“I’ll give you the address and meet you out front.” There was just something about that statement that almost made Isaac regret saying it, but it wasn’t a warning of danger from Bright, but more of the fear in Cara’s eyes. “Don’t worry,” he whispered, stepping closer to her, “no one will hurt you.” Cara looked back at Bright, curious, and confused, but the man’s eyes were right on Isaac. “What did I say?”

“How did you know?” Bright let out a noise that Isaac didn’t think possible for a human, a protective sound that almost had Isaac stepping back.

“Her eyes, her scent.” Isaac paused, “what happened to her?”

The way Bright’s arm went around her shoulders had Isaac bristling but not with anger, more of a need to step up and protect her. “That’s not a discussion for now, just…” he released her, stepped back, and allowed Isaac to move closer, bridge the gap between them. Isaac didn’t even realize he had reached out until the electric feeling beneath his fingers traveled up his arm. “Keep her safe.”

Bright moved to step away, but Isaac found himself suddenly gripping the man’s thick forearm. There it was again, that pulse, that electric feeling and Bright’s eyes moved from his hand to his gaze. Gently, he placed his warm skin against Isaac’s.

“I’ll be there,” he nodded, wrapped his fingers around Isaac’s and lifted the werewolf’s grip from his arm. “Promise.”

And then he was gone.

Isaac wrapped both arms protectively around Cara, pulling her into an embrace before he took his eyes from the direction Bright had gone in. After a few moments of drinking in how close she was and her scent, Isaac took a hesitant step back, hands still on her shoulders, and looked down into her eyes.

“You ready? It’s not that far.”

In response, she nodded. He slipped her small hand into his and turned, eyes still on her, towards Derek’s loft.

~~~~~

They ran -- for the most part -- in directions of home, eyes on each other and the woods that surrounded them, but all was quiet. Isaac worried -- at one point -- about the others in the pack stumbling onto them, but there wasn’t a peep in the woods.

It wasn’t until they got to the building that Isaac heard anything. The small sound of a click, like a hammer being pulled back and set in place, caught his attention as he skidded to a halt just before entering the building. Cara slipped beside him, her blue eyes scanning the grounds as he did the same, but there wasn’t a heat signature for nearly a half-mile that he could detect, and he found himself slipping his fingers around hers, pulling her behind him, as he stepped back into the shadows.

Once safely behind a corner, nestled into the darkness the stones created, hidden from the eyes of everyone else, did Isaac take a moment to look her over. He sat down on the small stone bench at the corner, hiding in the darkness it provided, wondering absentmindedly if it had been a place for one of those large stone planters, before shaking it off to take in Cara’s presence.

She paced in front of him, scent going wild with worry and fear as she clenched her hands and stomped back and forth. Isaac reached out, took her wrist gently, stopping her movement and pulled her to him. Cara stood between his spread legs, eyes focused, lips tight in a solid pink line, and she gave him just a small shake of her head.

Isaac slipped his fingers into hers, and tugged her forward again, leaning in as she closed her eyes, gently touching his forehead with hers.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, really it was almost as quiet as a breath, but she started to shake the moment it left his mouth. “You’re safe here,” and he met her eyes the best he could, “with me.”

Cara’s breath hitched in a quiet sob before she slipped her fingers from his and wrapped her arms around his neck. Isaac sat back, forced his body to relax, to invite her in instead of resting on the edge of battle ready, and she slipped one knee to either side of his thighs. He drew in her scent, looking for some sort of deception, digging through the layers of the chemo signals and what was just her to find something, some sort of lie as to why she pulled at him so desperately, but he found nothing, and finally allowed himself to hold her.

The moments ticked away as they stayed there, holding on with everything they had, basking in each other’s presence before the sound of a truck broke the night. Bright was coming closer, Isaac could almost scent him in the air, but that was when Cara sat back, resting right on his thighs, and her hands swiftly moved to his hair, digging in, and grasping his curls.

Isaac gasped, lips parted as his eyes widened looking up at her, surrendering completely before she brought her mouth to his. The moment they connected it was as if the world had set on fire, Isaac felt the heat in every fiber of his being. His hands moved without consent, one arm tucking under her ass to keep her pressed tightly to him as she tugged his head back, dominating the kiss, and the other slipped up under the back of her shirt, searching for skin.

Her lips parted and her tongue slipped over his lips, a sensation that he opened them for, deepening the need to have her closer, to feel her wrapped around him and Isaac moaned, pulling her in tighter the higher the fire burned. Her scent consumed him, as her lips did, and he fell into desperately searching her out, slipping his hand around to cup her breasts as his thumb flicked over a hardened nipple. The only noise that came from her was a gasp of breath and that was all he needed before he stood and pressed her back against the cold stone wall.

She wrapped her legs tightly around his waist as he rutted against her, searching for a release that he knew he could chase if he just had more time, but it was cut short when Bright stepped around the corner, bow in hand and Isaac growled. He shifted his body, protecting the woman in his arms as he bared his fangs at the man who only stared, expressionless, at them. Isaac’s eyes brightened but Bright never moved.

That was when the scent hit him, almost in the exact way that Cara’s had exposed his need, so did Bright’s, and the human shifted his weight just enough that Isaac needed to reach out and grab him.

Clawed fingers gripped Bright’s shirt, fisting as much material between them as he could, and he yanked the man forward. Bright didn’t resist, didn’t pull away, and certainly didn’t protest when Isaac’s mouth practically slammed into his, tasting the want on the human’s lips.

Bright let the bow hang down his back on a shoulder strap, his hands reaching for Isaac’s hair, slipping in alongside Cara’s who had managed to find her footing on the concrete bench just before Bright turned the tables and pressed Isaac back against the rough red bricks.

The sound that left his body was one of need and desperation, more so with the weight of the man against him than that of the moment he held Cara in that exact spot. Bright was his height, outweighed him by nearly forty pounds, and seemed to be dominating every aspect of this little tryst… and Isaac couldn’t be more okay with that.

The sudden press of Bright’s hips, the grind against the rough, tented jeans, had Isaac up on his toes, moaning into the man’s mouth, and he released his shirt enough to find Bright’s waist… belt loops... back... anything to get him to do it again, and he did, more forceful this time, thrusting against Isaac, and the wolf let out a small rumble of pleasure.

Bright’s lips left his, traveling along his cheek, down his jaw, until he nipped at Isaac’s neck, leaving the werewolf to stare blankly at the darkened building, eyes still powered up, until a small hand cupped his cheek, turning him in a specific direction, right to Cara.

Her omega blue eyes held his and he licked out before drawing in his bottom lip, eyes shifting to her mouth just as she leaned in and kissed him. The sound of buttons snapping off was the only warning Isaac got before he felt the hot, wet flick of Bright’s tongue on his hardened nipple and he hissed against her lips.

The man’s solid palm, wide, heavy, and definitely larger than anyone Isaac had ever been with, pressed against the tented material, running over the ridge of his concealed cock. Isaac whimpered, ready to cry out. Their combined scents were intoxicating, overwhelming, but their touch together drove him straight to the edge and his claws dug into Bright’s hip, the sudden tang of blood in the air sent him spiraling, and Isaac came violently from just their touch.

“Fuck,” he breathed out in one quick huff before Cara backed away, a look of awe on her face, as she searched his expression. Bright stood, body still pressed to Isaac’s, reminding him of the cooling, sticky mess the man had just caused, and he lazily leaned in and kissed Isaac softly. “What was that?”

“I think I have an idea,” Bright sighed, glancing towards Cara, who only seemed confused, “but you might not like it, and we should probably talk to Derek.”

It took a moment for his brain to come back online before he realized where they were standing and with a quick nod from Isaac, Bright stepped away.

~~~~~

The walk into the building, the ride to the loft, and the few minutes between the elevator and the door was quiet. None of the three spoke, though Isaac wouldn’t release Cara’s hand, and Bright was always close guarding his back as they moved.

Isaac paused at the door, glanced from the wolf beside him to the human behind him, before slowly releasing a breath through pursed lips, and then he yanked the sliding metal door open. He stood there, looking into the dim loft, taking up much of the doorway as he scanned for signs of life.

The only one he found was Derek, currently up on the landing in front of a wall of windows, arms out, fists on the table, leaning over to see something spread out… possibly a map from the look of it, but his eyes came up to meet Isaac’s the moment the young beta’s heart started thumping.

“Derek?” It was as if Isaac was suddenly unsure of what was going on, what he had done bringing Cara and Bright right to him, but Derek just slowly moved from his position, around the table to stand there… waiting.

It was Cara that made the first move, slipping from Isaac’s grasp as she darted past him and into the waiting arms of his sire. Bright patted Isaac on the shoulder, pressing him on to enter the room but his eyes never left Cara, not even as he pulled the door closed behind him. Isaac saw the moment Derek gave into her, wrapped his arms around her tiny body, closed his eyes and pressed his face into her neck, and he couldn’t stop the rumbled warning that came from somewhere deep in his chest.

Bright gave a chuckle, which had Cara slowly turning in his direction as Derek finally looked up, a bit confused, at Isaac and slowly released the werewolf in his arms. Bright managed to get close enough to reach out a hand, one that Derek took with a grin, with one arm still around Cara, and gave the human a good shake before all eyes were up on Isaac, who hadn’t left the small landing to enter the room.

“Isaac?” Worry wasn’t something that Derek ever voiced, but it was evident in it now as Derek slowly stepped away from the newcomer and made his way slowly over to his beta. “Isaac.”

Isaac hadn’t realized he had clenched his fists, or how rigid his body was until Derek was close enough to touch. He also hadn’t noticed the way his claws dug into his palms until Derek grabbed his wrist and brought them up, eyebrows pitching at the sight of the blood.

“You,” Isaac whispered, trying to suddenly control the fury as he breathed in through his nose, taking in the scent of Cara _on_ Derek. “You smell like her.”

Derek’s jaw dropped in confusion and his eyes went right to Bright’s, who only crossed his arms and gave him a gentle shrug. “What’s going on?”

“We need to talk.” Bright sighed.

“Bright, what did you do to my beta?” Derek growled, but it stopped the instant Cara put herself between Derek and Bright, giving him a determined shake of her head. Isaac had never seen Derek back down, but the moment she stepped up and took Isaac’s other hand, Derek let go, and moved away. “Jesus, both of you?”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Isaac questioned, suddenly coming out of his stupor, only to wrap his arms around Cara more. Derek glanced at Bright, who just shrugged and gestured to him. “Knock that shit off and tell me what the hell you’re talking about. And where’s Charlie?”

“She’s in Sacramento,” Derek replied and turned fully to look at the way Isaac held onto Cara. “Come sit down.”

“No,” Isaac whined, “just tell…”

“Isaac,” Derek snapped, shutting the beta up. He took a breath, lowered his voice, and gestured towards the couch, “come sit down,” and Isaac shook from the gentleness of those words. “Please.”

Cara tugged him towards the couch, where Bright sat on the arm, and gently shoved the taller werewolf down onto the seat before she curled up between Bright and Isaac. Derek rolled his shoulders, sighed, and sat down in front of him on the coffee table.

“When the hell did this,” his finger pointed between the three as he stared up at Bright, “start?”

“The woods,” Isaac whispered, while Bright admitted, “downstairs,” before his gaze snapped to Isaac. “Really, the woods?”

“I thought it was just her, but,” Isaac shook his head, “it was you first, and then Cara.”

“Wait, what happened in the woods?”

“I shot him,” Bright admitted, as Isaac finished, “with a wolfsbane arrow.”

Cara just smiled, raised her hands, and shrugged innocently, something that got Derek to frown in disbelief.

“Him,” he pointed to Bright, “him I could understand aiming for the wrong guy, but you,” his finger twirled at Cara, “you’re one of the best trackers I’ve ever met. Don’t tell me you didn’t know it was Isaac and not your monster.” She shrugged, brows raised, and then her hands were going at a rapid pace before Derek sat back and raised a hand, halting her movement. “I get that you scented him, and that you were curious, but you could have at least warned Bright.” Isaac was following the movements of her fingers as Derek watched calmly before once again holding up his hand. “Okay,” and she signed again, “ _okay_!” and that stopped her. “I’m not mad… really, but please,” he pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers before scanning over them again and stopping at her. “Explain this.”

All three men were quiet as Cara signed her way through an explanation, one that Isaac didn’t understand, but had Derek _uh-huh_ ing, and nodding just the same before she stopped, as if exhausted and dropped her hands in her lap.

“What did she say?” Isaac questioned as soon as she sunk back against him. Derek exchanged a glance with Bright before running a hand down his face. “Derek, what did she say?”

“She was following your scent, picked it up about a mile out, and freaked out when she also scented the monster close by. Bright only fired because it was behind you, and that was what she told him to do. He missed… obviously and hit you instead.”

“Wait,” Isaac sat forward, turning his sights to Cara, “it was behind me?” She gave a quick nod, and put her small hands on his cheeks, holding his gaze as her scent changed, full of worry. “It’s okay,” he whispered, fingers coming up to trace down her arm. “I’m not… I just didn’t realize it was that close. What was it?” She took her hands away, signing to him, and Isaac grew frustrated before he took hold of her wrists, drew in a breath, and kissed her fingers. “I’m sorry, you’re going too fast.”

“You know sign language?” Bright narrowed his eyes at Isaac, who smiled.

“I learned a little in France, but I’m nowhere near adept to keep up.” Isaac smiled, eyes only on Cara’s and bit his lip before he kissed her fingers again. “A little slower, please.”

Cara’s scent changed, a mix of happy, a little bit of sugary sweetness hit his nose and Isaac shivered before concentrating on the way her hands moved. “An Onocentaur?” Cara nodded, but that alone made Isaac glance at the other two men in the room, “what is that… exactly?”

“Do you know what a centaur is?” Bright questioned, getting Cara to look back at him.

“Yes, half-man, half-horse.”

“Well, this one’s half-donkey,” Derek spoke up, crossing his arms as he stood from the coffee table. “It’s not the only difference, though.”

“What’s it doing here?”

“We’re not sure,” Bright moved to follow Derek to the table, an action that Isaac followed, but was immediately brought back to the woman on the couch by the shift in her scent.

“What is it?” He whispered, ducking down within a few inches of her as Cara shook her head, lips locked tight as her hands quickly grasped his. She bit on her upper lips, cocked her head just a bit to take in his face and she gently shook her head. “You know I can smell you, right?”

Cara huffed, closed the distance, and kissed him softly. She stayed closer, letting her forehead rest against his before repeating the kiss, which had Isaac reaching for her. He wrapped his arm loosely around her waist and pulled her up onto her knees, as he leaned back. She now towered over him, head back against the seat and her fingers moved up his chest, fingers tickled over his neck before she slid them into his hair.

Derek wrinkled his nose, glancing up at his friend. Bright was trying not to look at the two on the couch, but his eyes slipped away from the papers in front of him enough for Derek to notice.

“This really caught you off guard, didn’t it?” Derek wanted to laugh, to be an asshole, but he’d never seen a link between a human and two wolves, and not one as strong as he could feel at that moment with the three in the room.

“Mates?” Bright laughed, finally looking away just as Isaac pulled her onto his lap, letting her straddle him again. “Of all the lore and bullshit I know about your kind, _mates_ was never a thing I thought I’d be involved in… ever.”

“Well, you have one advantage,” Derek grinned, then tapped on his nose.

“Is it that bad?”

“Let’s just say there’s a scent on you that I really wish I could forget.” Derek grabbed one of the papers and slid it closer to him, shaking his head as Bright tried to make a nonchalant attempt at smelling his pits. “Don’t worry, it’s not body odor.”

“Hmm,” he rolled his eyes, but that had his gaze going to Isaac and Cara. “Maybe I should step away.”

“Won’t work,” Derek hadn’t even bothered to look up for that reply. “No matter where you go, you’ll be pulled back to them.”

“Why are they so…” Bright cleared his throat, “how can I want them both so badly when I can’t scent them the way they can each other?”

“Pheromones aren’t just obvious to shifters, Bright,” Derek laughed, “they’re just more intense because of our heightened senses. Humans smell them all the time, they just perceive it differently. A perfume that smells good on one person, might be repulsive on another. Think about musk and vanilla… where you would smell the vanilla on Cara, I might smell the musk, or not find it pleasant at all.”

“Never thought I would need a biology lesson at my age.” Bright shifted, putting his back to the couple on the couch and tried to concentrate on the page in front of him. “How dangerous can a half-ass be?”

“Apparently, pretty deadly.” Derek slipped him several police reports of people being stabbed, then trampled to death. “The problem is finding out where he came from and why these people.”

“We might need a little more time to figure that out.” Bright finally stood, irritated and shifting and Derek smirked, keeping his head low. “Fuck!”

“Take them,” Derek finally gave in, standing straight to meet his eyes, but Bright only glared confused before Derek sighed and turned his head to the bedrooms at the top of the spiral staircase. “Take them up there and do _something_ about whatever you’re feeling. You found your mates, even if it’s not Cara but just Isaac, finish it.”

“I’m not ready for that kind of commitment, and neither is your beta.”

“You don’t need to mark him, he doesn’t need to mark you, but,” Derek crossed his arms, “if you don’t do something about this tension between you… just do it.” He walked around the table, patted Bright on the shoulders, and headed for the hallway, exiting the room.

Bright turned to watch the lazy kisses between Cara and Isaac. He debated for only a moment more once he heard the click of a door, somewhere in the house was the sound of a bolt sliding into place, and then he was down at the couch, holding a hand out.

Isaac’s blue eyes were on his, but his hand was sliding between Bright’s fingers a second later. Cara slipped from his lap, got to her feet, and took Isaac’s other hand. The beta glanced between them, got to his feet, and followed Bright up the winding, iron staircase.

~~~~~

Isaac was far from a wild-eyed virgin, but the moment Bright had him backed up against the wall in the bedroom, his heart raced, his face flushed, and Isaac’s brain drew a complete blank. How the hell was this going to work? Well, that was stupid, he knew exactly how it _worked_ , he wasn’t dumb or blind, or innocent… at all… but with Cara kneeling on the bed, resting on her heels, watching with glowing blue eyes, well, Isaac wasn’t sure he was going to survive.

Bright’s fingers slipped under the hem of his shirt and the moment the callus tips scrapped against the skin over his hips, Isaac gasped through parted lips, his blue eyes locked right on Bright’s dark ones and his breathing picked up.

Before he knew what was happening, his shirt was gone, those long, thick, dark fingers were roaming over the expanse of Isaac’s milky skin, and yes, it was pale… werewolves didn’t tan. Still, Bright was tracing the edges of his muscles, in awe over the flawless flesh and Isaac bit down on his bottom lip, sucking it in as Bright’s thumb flicked over his nipple.

Isaac surrendered to it then, letting his head drop back hitting the wall with a solid thump before closing his eyes. That was just about the time the hot, slick tip of a tongue lavished across his chest, flicking across his nipple again.

“Jes....us…” Isaac let the word slip from his lip as his hands suddenly figured out what to do and grasped at the shirt that Bright was wearing, hoping to remedy the situation quickly, as he stripped it from his body.

The human wouldn’t give up his mission to essentially strip him bare and expose him to the world, and Isaac was completely fine with that, in fact, he didn’t put up a fight at all while his hands ran the length of Bright’s back, fingers caressing over the scars that graced it, lighter brown than his skin tone.

There was an audible pop when the button of his jeans broke away from the hole, and in the quiet -- or what was mostly the sound of their breathing -- the zipper echoed through the room. Isaac’s eyes focused on the bed, at Cara, who was down to her bra and panties, sitting back on the pillows, fingers moving below the fabric of the purple lace bottoms. He could scent her from where he stood, every bit as needy as he and Bright, but he couldn’t force himself away from the wall to touch her, not with Bright’s hands suddenly on his bare hips, and his lips trailing down after his jeans and boxers, that lay at his ankles.

Isaac stiffened. He had forgotten about earlier, about the wall and the fact that he never cleaned up, thinking about how his skin was covered in the dried come and opened mouth to protest just as Bright moaned, tongue licking over his skin, nipping at it, and Isaac huffed out a moan.

“Oh…” was all he got out when Bright’s massive hand wrapped around the base of his cock. Isaac was once again, up on his tiptoes, not trying to get away but from the sudden onslaught of intense electricity coming from the man’s gentle stroke up. “Fuck.”

“You’re quite fluent with that word,” Bright’s voice, his breath, warm and intense against the light patch of curls, and the v of his hip bones had Isaac’s hand gently threading through what hair Bright had on his head, wanting to guide by really just holding on. “Let’s see if I can get you to say it another way.”

“What?” Isaac wasn’t confused or shocked… more curious, but that was when the human moved, licked up the backside of his cock, following the vein and suddenly wrapped his mouth around the swollen head. “Holy--”

Isaac lost his breath, freehand searching the wall for something to hold onto, as he spread he managed to step out of his jeans and spread his legs wider. He couldn’t look down, couldn’t watch Bright draw him in. He wouldn’t make it, wouldn’t last if he looked, but he could feel the heat, the suction on his head, and then two fingers trailing down from the base to just behind his balls.

The tip of Bright’s finger playing with his hole nearly set Isaac off the ground but he only put just the slightest bit of pressure, not enough to breach it, not yet, and Isaac found himself biting down on his lips to keep from being too loud.

His golden eyes looked up at Cara, now completely void of clothing. She was beautiful, long hair spilling around her where it had been in a ponytail before, skin flawless except one little birthmark at her hip, and her legs were spread wide, giving him a clear view of the way her fingers dipped in, slick and coated as she watched them.

Isaac could feel the telltale signs of the end coming soon, the way his sack pulled up against his body, the slight electric tingle at the base of his spine and he tapped Bright on the shoulder. “Wait… wait…”

Apparently, that was the cue. The fingers at his backside slipped in, a strange, stretching feeling that had Isaac’s legs going weak, and he felt oddly full. Two fingers full, but no pain, just the pressure of it. It was new, exciting, overstimulating and he didn’t hold back this time, he let out a moan that probably shook the house. He thought he was done for, that he couldn’t last any longer, but inside him, Bright’s fingers curved, brushed over his prostate and Isaac saw white.

The static shock feeling buzzed through him sending him back on his toes once more as he came, spilling over into the man’s hungry mouth, the suction on his skin growing harder, more demanding and Isaac gave in, letting every sound Bright could pull from him out.

And then his knees really did give out.

The world came back to him slowly, gentle hands maneuvered him to the bed, one step at a time, and Isaac found himself lying on his side, Cara in front of him, Bright behind. He smiled at the shifter before him, the way she turned and hooked a leg over his hip, sliding in as close as she could.

They shared a kiss that put him at ease and fired him up at the same time. Isaac didn’t know his refractory period was anything close to this, but he could already feel his body getting onboard with round two, but he didn’t rush, just enjoyed the feel of the two of them.

Bright’s lips and hands traveled over him, kissing along his neck and back, until those fingers drifted to his ass. The strange sensation of cold liquid had Isaac break the kiss from Cara, to turn his head in his direction.

“Don’t worry,” Bright whispered, leaning in to brush his mouths on Isaac’s, “I won’t hurt you.”

“I’ve never…” Isaac admitted, but never finished that sentence because Bright nodded. He knew. Isaac had always been curious what it would be like, but never had the balls to get into it. Here he was trapped between two people that made everything in him tingle and he wanted them both so bad. “Go slow.”

“You can always tell me to stop,” Bright peppered little kisses on his cheek, down his neck, and back up as his fingers pushed past the tight ring of his outer muscle, and Isaac drew in a deep breath. “Relax.”

What happened next was just a flurry of emotions and feelings, touches and kisses that blinded Isaac to anything else in the world outside. He felt the moment that Cara surrounded him with tight, wet heat, slowly rocking on his cock as they lay facing each other, forehead to forehead, lost in each other’s eyes. He breathed through the pressure of Bright breaching his rim with the head of his thick cock and surrendered to the strange feeling of being full.

It was the way Bright hit his prostate with each gentle push and pull that got Isaac, the way that Cara clenched and pulsed around him that had his body shaking and lost in the rocking motion. Bright pushed him forward _into_ Cara, only to pull him back when he slipped away. Isaac didn’t notice the way his fangs descended or the pointed tips of his claws digging in until he could smell the tang of blood that fill the room, mixing with the erotic scents of the two he was so entranced with.

He nearly howled as he came, pulling Cara close, trying to bury himself as deep as he could within her walls as he pulsed inside her. He felt Bright’s teeth at his neck as the man broke his gentle rhythm and thrust forward, which only sent Isaac more over the edge, and with two hard thrusts, moaned in his ear, filling him.

It was Cara’s breathy giggle that had Isaac attempting to pry his lazy lids open, and he smiled at the sated grin on her face. He reached out, ran the tips of his fingers over her cheek and thumbed at her skin, but it was then that he remembered he didn’t hear her, she didn’t have a voice to cry out and he cocked his head just a bit.

“Did you?” He whispered, then lay in awe as she took his hand from her face, pressed it gently against her body and slowly pushed it down between her legs. She was covered, soaked in come, hers, and Isaac’s, even the bed beneath her was wet, and Isaac slipped that hand over her inner thigh, giving her muscles a squeeze as he met her eyes again. “Good?”

She giggled again and nodded, before she brought her hands up and made a “ _mind blowing_ ” gesture that had Bright laughing behind them. Isaac suddenly inhaled as Bright slipped from him, and he turned to look into the man’s dark eyes.

“That was uncalled for,” Isaac whispered, and was met with a kiss instead of a reply.

“You’ll find out I do a lot of things that aren’t called for,” Bright whispered against his mouth, hand roaming over Isaac’s hips until he gently cupped his sack in his hand. Isaac stiffened before relaxing into his hold. “I could stay here for the rest of the day.”

“What are we going to do about this _thing_?” Isaac whispered, getting a tap from Cara to grab his attention and both men looked at her, fingers going at light speed. “Too fast.”

Cara smirked, eyes going right to Bright.

“She said we have time,” Bright said softly in his ear, “and a pack. Let’s just get to know our mate.”

Isaac’s expression fell at that, not because he was upset or confused, just that it suddenly dawned on him. Everything that Derek, Liam, and Theo had with theirs… he had wanted that, he had _needed_ that and now he had it. With two people.

He smiled, glancing at one then the other. “Mates. I like that.”


	5. Stiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While not technically a werewolf, Stiles is still part of a pack, and Scott is still his alpha, so it really didn't surprise him when he noticed the signs.

Stiles sat back at his desk and closed his eyes. There wasn’t much else to do at the police station especially considering his limited access to crimes, crime scenes, evidence, interrogations, and basically anything  _ good _ that comes with being in the halls of the Beacon County Sheriff’s Department.

It wasn’t all bad. He had gotten a certain pleasure out of denying his dad those really greasy burgers that he would try to sneak in for lunch, but that got old fast, and a little hypocritical when Noah actually started dropping bags of curly fries off at his desk on his way by. Life as a sheriff’s son could definitely be trying at times.

The whole thing with the werewolves and their sudden mates wasn’t helping the situation much at all either. Stiles had a built-in system of distrust for outsiders until he fully vetted the people who even went near the betas, but the way the men -- wolves -- instinctively set him at ease seem to be putting a damper on all things suspicious.

The real problem… he actually  _ liked _ them, and the mates had been nothing less than helpful on several cases that came up involving unwanted shifters in the last month. Strangely enough, it was Isaac’s mate, Bright that was the most helpful. Dakota was amazing for hand to hand, Charlie had that whole  _ hellhound _ thing going on, and Riley was a great medic, but Bright and Cara just worked so well together.

He just didn’t understand the draw, the way they  _ scented _ each other, made sure no harm came to them. He really didn’t get the whole sex thing, and there was  _ a lot _ of sex going on. He had stumbled onto one or two of the pairs, and almost once on the trio before he got the point that calling ahead for anything was -- no matter how much of an emergency it was -- now definitely a necessity.

So… it was a little off-putting when the doors to the station opened and a woman stumbled in. Stiles usually ignored the whole commotion at the front of the room when he was anywhere in the area because he was never allowed to do anything, but the moment SHE tripped grabbing for a desk and knocked almost everything off, was the second that Stiles was on his feet.

It was also the instant that he was hit with the overwhelming scent of maple and cinnamon.

Self-diagnosis was just a thing that he did, and from hearing all of the lore and first-hand accounts from the men in his adopted family, he knew exactly what he was feeling as soon as it happened.

His blood started to boil, and he felt the rush of heat and… how did Derek put it?...  _ need _ go straight to his groin. Not something he needed to happen in the middle of a full building but… whatcha gonna do?

His feet moved him faster than his thoughts could catch up and he knelt down beside the woman. Her long black hair was matted with leaves, stiff with blood, and tangled in knots, but that didn’t stop him from rolling her over --from where she had landed on the floor -- and gently pushing it aside so he could see her face.

She stared up at him with bright blue eyes -- omega eyes -- and he took a chance to look around the room, pulling her close to hide them from any onlookers. Stiles shushed her, even though she hadn’t made a sound, and lowered his cheek to hers.

“Shut them off,” he warned, his voice soft but stern, and she scoffed at him, her hand coming up to grip his shirt, a move hidden by their body placement.

“I can’t,” she growled out between clenched teeth, and he shook from the sound of her voice. It was then that he decided that he hated mates, hated werewolf lore, and most of all, hated how tight his jeans were. “I’ve been shot.”

“You’re a werewolf,” he shook his head, still pulling at her to keep her close, “just heal.”

“Can’t… I think it’s wolfsbane,” she sighed, and that was when Stiles noticed the hand that gripped him was loosening, and his heart raced as panic set in.

“Okay,” he flexed his jaw trying to get it to relax as he looked up at the gathering crowd. “Keep them closed.” Holding her to him, he got to his knees and tried to get her to her feet. “Help!” He was surprised at how easy it was to make himself sound panicked, but it worked. “She needs a hospital.”

Those four words got him exactly who he wanted.

“Stiles?” Parrish appeared beside him, the hellhound blocking the view of the others that were now scrambling to do  _ something _ useful. “Stiles, let me have her.”

“No!” Even he was surprised at the amount of force and determination in his voice as he glared up at Parrish. “Just help me get her out of here.” He tried to tone down the possessiveness, to be the guy asking, and not demanding, but it seemed like Parrish got it. “Please.”

“Alright,” the deputy looked around, “can you lift her.”

“I can walk,” she pushed at him with the palm of her hands, shifted to sit up on her own and instantly fell against him. “Know what… never mind.”

Stiles smirked. It shouldn’t be that funny, but it was, she was as defiant as Derek and that was a good thing. Without another word, he scooped her up, fascinated by the fact that while he knew she was a shifter, she was almost feather light in his arms. Stiles wasn’t a big man, he had muscle… strength, and held his own in a fight, but he was tall and thin. No one ever pegged Stiles for someone who could carry a woman from one end of the department out the back, and straight to his Jeep, but they definitely would call him determined.

Parrish opened the side door, and Stiles moved her into the seat as gently as possible, which wasn’t as much as he hoped. Once she was seated in a more upright position, Stiles had the chance to finally get a good look at her. Her eyes were light, fluctuating between green and blue in the overhead light of the Jeep, but her skin was pale and drawn and even the power of her wolf seemed drained.

“Okay, where?” He assumed she knew what he was asking when she leaned as far back as she could and lifted the shirt to her bra line.

Two shots, both in close proximity to the other, and while it would be deadly to most people, it seemed her healing ability had kicked in enough to keep it from bleeding much. The problem was what was leaking from the wounds was black.

“Wolfsbane poisoning.” Stiles ran a hand down his face and bit his lip before his eyes met hers. “Alright, so… here’s the deal. I’m going to take you to our emissary, he knows how to fix this without killing you.”

“Well, that would be fantastic, and living would be preferable.” She swallowed hard, her eyes barely open, and Stiles reached out, drawing down her shirt, but as his knuckles brushed her skin, she groaned, slapped her hand down on his fingers and pressed them against the heat of her flesh. She was burning up. It was the weirdest feeling to touch her, made his whole body just want to vibrate, but when her lips parted and she slowly withdrew her fingers, he knew for her it was more than just a touch. “You’re different.”

“You have no idea.” Stiles stepped away from her completely and closed the door before turning to Parrish. The Deputy was staring at him just a bit confused, brows creased, frown on his lips but Stiles just shook his head. “Man, don’t ask, I have no clue either.”

“You smell…”

Stiles raised his hand. “Hold that thought, I have a dying werewolf in my car who came out of nowhere and no time for shifter…” he waved his hands around like he was trying to encompass the world… “anything right now except getting her to Deaton. Please.” He rested his hand on the man’s arm, “call Derek, or Scott and have them meet me at the vet’s office.”

“Sure,” was the only thing he heard Parrish reply before running around to the driver’s side of the car to climb in.

As he started it up, he glanced over at the woman and shook his head. “Hang on, we’ll get you fixed up in no time and you can tell us what exactly happened.” She didn’t reply. “Finally, a wolf not threatening to bite my face off.”

“You’d like it too much,” she mumbled, making an effort to turn her head in his direction, but she never bothered opening her eyes. Stiles smirked, shook his head, and put the Jeep in reverse, backing out of the parking spot before he stepped on the gas. “Where are you taking me?”

“Must have hit your head too. I already told you I’m taking you to our emissary.” Stiles fought back the need to reach out and touch her. His passenger only snickered and shook her head. “What?”

“Do you always put strange shifters in your car? It’s dangerous, you know”

“I’m a human in the middle of a pack, my whole life is dangerous, what’s one more furry…” He took a breath and looked her over, “one more day of living on the edge?”

“You can say furry,” her words slurred, “I know how to shift.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“It’s too painful,” and he saw the moment that darkness took over, her head slowly dropping towards her chest as she slumped further into her seat.

“I’ll help you with that, I swear.” He braved touching her this time, reached over and took her hand in his as he inhaled the scent of cinnamon and maple, something he knew he shouldn’t be smelling at all. “And then we’ll figure this out.”

~~~~~

At Deaton’s office, he was parked and out of the Jeep as soon as the door slid open. It didn’t take long to get his arms around her, lift her up and make his way into the exam room, but the feeling of loss as he stepped back was almost more than he could take.

Deaton didn’t step forward, just stood motionless at the end of the table as Stiles fought the need to touch her, a need that won out in the end and he leaned over her, one arm behind her head, and his hand caressing her neck gently. The emissary’s lack of movement was what got Stiles to snap.

“Don’t just stand there, do something,” the human huffed out, body shaking with adrenaline.

“I didn’t want to step into your space without your permission.” Deaton grabbed the surgical tray and stepped closer, eyes on Stiles as he lifted a pair of scissors and cut her shirt. “What’s her name?”

“We hadn’t gotten that far,” he whispered to the older man. “What did you mean my permission?”

“You live around werewolves; please tell me you recognized the signs.” Deaton grabbed the bottle and irrigated the wounds clearing away the messy black blood with a cloth. Stiles didn’t verbally reply, he just nodded. “Then permission is absolutely necessary.”

“Can we,” Stiles took his hand away from her only long enough to rub it briskly across his forehead. “Can we drop this until later when she’s not… oozing?”

Deaton said nothing, just went to work removing the bullets. He was just dropping the second slug into the tray when the front door opened, and Scott ran in. The alpha stopped dead -- eyes wide and worried -- in the doorway as he looked over Stiles.

“Are you hurt?” He broke his stance and ran into the room, pulling Stiles up and only slightly away from the woman, patting his hand over Stiles’ chest, his nose flaring as he did so. “What is that… is that her?”

“Yeah, probably,” Stiles let himself be drawn into the hug, returning it without much protest and he closed his eyes, finally feeling a bit of relief. “I don’t even…” he glanced at the woman, watched the way Deaton packed her wounds with the burnt powder and shook his head. “I don’t even know her name?”

“It’s Dayfin,” her voice grumbled as if she had just been roused from a very refreshing nap and was pissed to hear voices already. “Solara Dayfin.” Stiles released Scott, automatically going to the woman, leaning over her as he had before, one arm behind her head, but this time he was closer, close enough to see the flex of gold in her eyes. “Thank you.”

Scott sat back in wonder as she reached up and traced his cheek with the tips of her fingers before she closed her eyes and sighed with exhaustion.

“Yeah,” Stiles whispered as she turned into the light touch of his fingers caressing over her temple, “no problem.”

“Stiles,” Scott spoke softly, tugging on the back of his shirt as she drifted back into unconsciousness. Stiles looked up, glaring at him, before he suddenly realized he was doing it, and let out a breath. His eyes went to Deaton, who was still working on the wounds, before nodding to Scott. He followed the alpha out of the room but refused to be out of sight of the table, his fingers twitching as he switched his weight from left to right and back again nervously. “What’s going on with you?”

“If I had to guess,” Stiles bit his lip, shook his head, and turned those amber eyes right on his best friend. “She’s my mate.”

“How?”

“Well, when two people meet…”

“Not funny, Stiles, I mean how do you know?”

“I can’t,” he huffed, gave up on playing with his fingers to put them on his hips. “I can’t stay away from her, I have this itch under my skin, and I really want to punch Deaton for touching her, and I asked him for help.” Scott’s brows creased in thought, but what Stiles said last confirmed it. “And I can smell her, everything about her… like… everything.”

“Okay.” Scott only nodded, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Okay, let me call Derek. We need to find a safe place for her to rest and figure out how she got those bullet wounds.”

“They’re wolfsbane bullets, Scott, how do you think she got them?”

“I don’t know,” he put his hand gently on Stiles’ arm as the man turned back to look in on the woman in the other room, “but hey,” -- that got his attention long enough for Scott to catch his eyes -- “we’ll protect her, you know we will.”

Stiles drew in a breath through his nose and let it out slowly through parted lips before he gave Scott the slightest nod. “I know.”

~~~~~

It didn’t take much to get Solara back to the loft, at least for Stiles, who wouldn’t let a single person touch her, or help carry her up. Thank God Derek fixed the elevator.

It was the dark-haired wolf himself who stood guard at the bedroom doorway while Stiles sat beside her on the bed, eyes going over her face like he was memorizing it, but it was also Derek who almost got the blunt end of Stiles’ backhand when he touched the dazed human on the shoulder.

Stiles heart rate soared as he got to his feet, swallowed back the fear and anger towards the intruder and raised his hands as he stepped back to the bed. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, you just--”

“Stiles,” Derek whispered, a soft, soothing noise that had Stiles’ relaxing at the sound of it. “I’m not here to take her,” and he made sure his eyes stayed locked on the human. “But” he held up a travel mug, “you need to eat.”

“What’s that?” and the question was filled with uncertainty.

Derek couldn’t keep the humor out of his tone or the smile from his face. “It’s soup, tomato, just like you like.”

“Oh,” Stiles’ whole body seemed to give out as he slumped against the bed and reached up to take the tumbler. “Thanks.” Derek nodded, turned and was almost to the door when Stiles sighed. “Does it get any easier? This feeling?”

“No,” Derek glanced back. “You’ll always want to be by her side, but the pull to her will lessen, you’ll find it easier to be away longer, it just doesn’t go away. It becomes...”

“Manageable? I can do manageable.” Stiles let his eyes close, let the feeling of being strung out slowly slip into more of an exhausted need for sleep and he never heard Derek leave the room, closing the door behind him. What he did feel was the fingers that gently rubbed his lower back, the hand that pressed against his spine and slowly he turned to look at the bright eyes of the woman on the bed. He turned quickly, taking her touch away, but in that second he scooped up her hand and wrapped his own around it. “Hey, you’re awake.”

“Someone said tomato soup,” she smirked, eyes still blinking back sleep. “I’m starving.”

Stiles laughed, grabbed the tumbler from where Derek had set it on the bedside table and clicked the top up. Solara sat up slowly, pressing back against the pillows and took the offered mug. She drank down several gulps before shaking her head,

“Jesus,” she coughed, “that’s hot.”

“Sorry, I forgot to mention Derek doesn’t do anything under scalding when it comes to food temps.”

“It’s okay, it’s better than being cold.” She lowered the mug and looked him over. “So, you’re Stiles, right? That was the name I kept hearing.”

“Yeah, Stiles Stilinski,” he grinned.

“Noah’s kid?”

Stiles sat up at this. “You know my dad?”

“He was the reason I came into the department,” she tilted her head just a little to the side and let her eyes roam over him. “I knew he had a son, he just never showed me your picture.”

“Well, you have a one up then, because he never told me about you.”

Solara nodded. “I’ve been working with him for about a year. We’re still hunting down Monroe’s people, I volunteered to help out after I lost my pack. Argent…” and Stiles rolled his eyes, which got a grin from her. “I take it you know him.”

“Yeah, complete pain in my ass since day one. He was leading the cause to hunt them all down.”

“He put me in contact with Noah, thought it would be good to have someone on the inside.”

“But you’re an omega.”

“And a good hunter.” Solara wasn’t at all modest when she smiled at him. “I was bitten a few years ago and managed to never show it to them somehow. I figured it was because I was one of them. I had the control I needed to keep from shifting most of the time, and when it did, well…” she gestured to her stomach. “This is what I got.”

“So, hunters did that?” Stiles found himself leaning closer to her, the space between them disappearing as she breathed him in, and he watched the power glow in her eyes. “Should I stop?”

“No.” Her eyes were locked on his even as his fingers slipped under her shirt, skirting along the line of the sweats he replaced her jeans with, but he stilled the moment she gasped. He yanked his hand back, only to have her catch it. “It wasn’t you. The skin there is just a little sensitive.” 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Stiles sighed, letting his forehead rest against hers as she directed his movements, placing his hand flat against her stomach.

“You won’t.” Solara tilted her chin up, letting her lips brush against his softly, and Stiles closed his eyes as tightly as he could, wishing the feeling to continue forever, and he held his breath only long enough that he was gasping when she pulled away. “See, not hurting me.”

“We should,” Stiles let the scent of her fill his scenes, “we should try again, just to be sure.”

Solara smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down, her lips connecting with his in a passionate, heart filled kiss. Stiles knew it should be weird to be that connected to someone so quickly, but has he pressed his weight down on her, pinning her to the bed, he couldn’t have cared a second longer about the strange way they fit together.

That one kiss turned into many, and the afternoon slipped into evening. It wasn’t until the sun went down that there was any disturbance from the outside world and when the knock came, it startled Stiles out of a light sleep. He looked around the dark room, felt Solara against his side, her head on his chest, her fingers at his neck and he sighed.

“Yeah, it’s unlocked,” he grumbled, which made the woman against him shift. The door opened slowly, and Stiles blinked at the large silhouette in the doorway. “Bright?”

“Hey, man, I know you’re…” he gestured towards Solara, “busy, but we need to talk. All of us.”

“Okay, sure, give us five minutes?” Bright nodded and closed the door. Stiles reached for the light on the table beside him and clicked it on, illuminating the room with a light yellow glow. Solara growled, an actual low noise that had Stiles clearing his throat and trying to tame the reaction in his jeans. “They wanna see us downstairs.”

“I heard,” she breathed out, her hand suddenly roaming down from his neck to the way his jeans tightened, and her hand brushed over his cock. Stiles stiffened, drew in a breath, and brought his hand down to cover hers.

“Sol, wait…” but he moaned as their combined hands created a weight just heavy enough for friction and he pressed up against them. His eyes rolled and he swallowed down the string of curses he wanted to let out. “Maybe…” but his hips were defying the rest of his body, especially his thoughts as he rolled up against her hand. “Maybe just…”

She flicked at the button of his jeans the next time her hand slipped up close enough to reach it and Stiles relented, he moved his finger from the back of her hand to rest gently on her wrist and opened his eyes only enough to watch the way she tugged the zipper down.

Stiles tried to keep his breathing even, to not let it get too erratic as she slipped her warm fingers beneath the boxers he wore and wrapped her small hand around his cock. He couldn’t take the confinement, grabbed a hold of the offending material, and yanked it down under his ass, exposing his hard-on to her.

Her eyes were all he saw when he settled back on the pillow, her hand on him was all he felt as she pushed up to her elbow and leaned over into his space, watching his expression as Stiles gave into the feeling of the slow, torturous strokes down to the base and up over the head, pausing only to give attention to a sensitive area just below the crown.

Stiles clenched his jaw, trying to hold in any noises he might have made, but he couldn’t help but give in when he felt the tell-tale signs of the end. His fingers grasped the sheets, tugging at them instead of her, and he panted, trying to hold off, but Solara smiled, leaned down, and kissed him gently, that was his undoing.

Stiles groaned, then whined as he thrust up into her hand three times, harder than he would have liked but he needed to feel it, needed to come, and the small moans of pleasure left his lips, she was there to capture them.

He released the sheets, tangled his hand into her hair and pulled her down to him, taking over the kiss with wild abandonment, wanting to make her feel as he did, high on everything, on her… but she shied away the moment he touched her hip.

“Oh God,” Stiles pushed back, eyes wide as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I just…”

“It’s not you,” she smiled, running a clean hand down his cheek as Stiles still stared uncertain.

“I stepped over the line, Sol… I just…”

She kissed him quickly, effectively shutting him up. “Trust me, Stiles, it’s not you at all.”

He watched in confusion as she slipped from the bed and made her way into the small bathroom off to the left of the room. When she returned, after washing her hands, with a wet towel, Stiles was already sitting up on the bed trying not to get the drying mess anywhere but his stomach.

He gave her a quick smirk as he accepted the towel and quickly wiped off, but when he went to stand, his hands on his jeans and halfway up his ass, Solara pushed him back on the bed, straddling his lap. Stiles gave in, placed his hands on her thighs and looked up at her as she gently stroked his neck with her fingers.

“I’m…” Stiles grew silent the moment she placed her finger on his lips.

“You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you?” She laughed and the sound of it alone had Stiles relaxing, his eyes closed to the soft caress.

“You have no idea,” he whispered, leaning into her touch.

“Stiles,” she placed her thumb under his chin, tilting his head back just a bit, enough to get him to open his eyes and look right into hers. “Please, believe me when I tell you that I can’t. There’s things… recent things… that…”

He suddenly got it. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.” He cupped her cheeks with his hands, gently running his thumbs along her skin. “Hold on, don’t…” Solara drew in a breath, “don’t say another word, not if it’s going to hurt you. I get it, okay. I do, and I’ll wait forever until you’re comfortable.”

She sat back just a little, eyes narrowed at him, but there was a shy smile on her face. “Where did you come from?”

Stiles licked his lips, “well…” and she saw the sarcastic comment coming, “When a man and a woman love each other…”

“Hold that thought,” she giggled, and that made his heart melt. “Didn’t we have something downstairs to attend to?”

“Boy, you know how to ruin a moment, don’t you?”

“I have my talents,” she laughed, sliding off him. Stiles took only a second to appreciate the way she walked away before he got up from the bed, finished getting dressed, and headed for the door, scooting in before she got to it to open it for her.

The two stopped at the top of the balcony looking over the small crowd in the room. Derek, Charlie, Isaac, Bright, Cara, Scott, and Liam… minus Dakota, who was out on a mission with Riley, stood looking up at them.

“Um,” Stiles debated, “we don’t have to go down there.”

“It’s okay, Stiles,” she gently took his hand, “I’m not afraid of either side of that crowd.”

He gave her a smirk before the two made their way down the winding iron staircase.

~~~~~

After introductions were made, Solara found herself standing at the windows that looked over Beacon Hills. The conversation between them had gone the way she imagined. Hunters were back in the area, something she was well aware of and had done her best to let Noah know before being shot, but it was the feeling of belonging to the group, something she had never felt before that really got her, thrown her off enough to step away, that had her standing here, looking.

Stiles warm hands caressed her shoulders, giving little squeezes to her upper arms as he made the point to touch her as much as he could when he stepped up behind her. It was the warmth of his breath on her neck that finally had her turning, slowly to find herself wrapped in his arms, a strange but safe place to be.

Stiles drew in her scent deeply through his nose, a thing he never thought he would get used to, but it just felt right, before he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Solara grasped his shirt with both hands, tucking her arms between them, leaving her vulnerable should something come at them, but she didn’t see a reason to be on guard, not with so many wolves and hunter surrounding her.

“Come on,” Stiles mumbled softly against her hair, took her hands and his and backed away slowly, like he was being cautious. She only glanced at the others in the room, all of them seeming to ignore the two of them, but she knew where each of them was. “Don’t worry, they won’t miss us. What you told them about the hunters in the area, they’ll be playing  _ Risk _ for hours.”

Solara glanced up at him, confused at the reference, or more like confused at the fact that Stiles had made the reference to an actual board game before she followed him quietly down the hallway towards what appeared to be the bathroom. Once inside the tiled room, she glanced around the standing shower -- a large stall that was blocked by half glass, but completely enclosed once the plastic curtain was drawn -- the toilet, and the sink.

Stiles grabbed a towel from the built-in shelves and set it down close to the wall before he turned to her, lip between his teeth like he was biting the inside and danced in place. Solara knew what his issue was, there was no need for him to say it as the blush ran up his cheeks and she put her back to him yanking the shirt she wore over her head while heading straight for the control knobs for the shower.

“Do you want me to leave? I feel like I should leave.” Stiles mumbled, but when she looked back at him, he was leaning against the small counter, arms crossed, head down but with a perplexed look on his face.

“I said I couldn’t do  _ sex _ right now, Stiles,” she smirked, rolling her eyes, but those words got him to look up, “not that I didn’t want you near me.”

He exhaled like the weight of the world just fell from his shoulders. “I just don’t want to push you, and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m not,” she admitted, though she stopped and thought about her own words as she stepped out of the sweats, letting them pool on the floor and observed the movement of his tongue as it slid across lips while his eyes took in the curves of her body. “For the first time in the last six years, I actually feel safe. I’m pretty sure that’s your fault.”

“I’m sorry?” He grumbled confused and slumped back once in an audible  _ umph _ . “No, wait,” and that got her to smile even if she was stepping under the hot stream, letting it take all the tension from her body. “I’m not sorry, not at all.”

Solara turned at the closeness of his voice and saw him leaning back against the wall just outside the stall, like his spot across the room had just been too far, but he wasn’t peeking in, in fact his eyes were tightly closed.

“You know what’s weird,” he kept going, “I was just thinking about this whole mates thing, like how Derek, and Liam had found theirs and… God slap me… even Theo was happy, but I never…” He chanced opening his eyes as he turned his head and caught her gaze, “I never thought I would find mine. I mean, come on, I human in a pack of wolves, betas with hunter mates… how fucking insane does that sound, and Cara’s a werewolf like you, and Charlie… Charlie’s a…”

Something about that statement just sounded… strange. “All of them?”

“... I don’t even know the whole back story on her just that she’s…” Stiles blinked, bringing his rant to a close before he looked at her blankly. “What?”

“All of them? All of Scott’s betas? Their mates are…”

“Hunters, yeah.”

“You said even Cara and Charlie who are…”

“Shifters. So?”

“At the same time?”

“I mean, not exactly at the same time. Over a couple weeks. First it was Dakota who just…” Stiles paused, his eyes going to the floor, but they didn’t stay there long when Solara suddenly grabbed the loofa on the wall, the bottle of body wash, and started scrubbing down. Stiles could see her skin growing bright red with how hard she scrubbed. “Hey.” She didn’t hear him, lost in thought but that was the moment he saw blood. Stiles kicked off the sweats he was wearing, yanked off the shirt and moved as fast as he could under the water to snatch the loofa from her. “Hey, Sol, stop.”

She turned to him, omega blue eyes bright with a warning, but not to get away… more of the fact that she was frightened. He stepped back, but only far enough to give her space before he reached out with the foaming cloth and started to gently run it over her skin.

“What freaked you out?” He asked after several moments of silence between them, enough so her eyes went back to that strange blue-green.

“That’s wrong, Stiles,” she whispered, not taking her eyes off him as his trailed the soap trail slowly kneeling in front of her. She could see his reaction to standing so close, how hard he was, how it jutted out, slapped against his stomach when he moved, but he didn’t do anything about it, not to her, not to himself. Stiles glanced up at her, then down at his own erection.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Has a mind of its own, especially around beautiful women.” His laugh seemed to set her at ease, again mainly because he didn’t even make a move to touch himself. “It’ll go away in about ten years… maybe, depending on activity level and diet…” but when he looked back at her, he noticed that her eyes were once again omega blue. “Sol?”

“It’s okay,” she let her eyes close as his fingers brushed against her skin, her lips parting as he trailed his knuckles along her hips. “Just don’t…”

“I know, I know,” Stiles smiled, “have more faith in me that I won’t hurt you.”

“I do,” she whispered, letting her head tip back against the wall as his lips touched her skin.

She took a quick breath in, hands falling on his shoulders as Stiles kissed and nipped his away over her navel, hand leading as he roamed, but all stopped the instant she widened her stance so he could get closer. Stiles paused, forehead against her hip, and just breathed her in, the mix of maple, cinnamon, and sex was overwhelming. It always had been for him, no matter how much he seemed to have it under control around women, Stiles had always had an obnoxiously high libido.

He stood, releasing her quickly, and moved back against the wall, eyes on her the whole time. His fingers curled into the bricks, like that might ground him as his nails pressed into the rough texture, but her bright blue gaze landing on him pushed his limits.

“I told you I won’t hurt you, so…” he cleared his throat, “you just stay… over there. Stay over there for a minute while I…” he huffed, “figure this out.”

The low rumble of a growl filled the space, and Stiles closed his eyes tightly, grinding his teeth as he willed his body to stay put, to not go after her, take her,  _ possess _ her. It faded into nothing, the sound of his heartbeat and the spray of the shower were the only sounds that filled his ears. The heat of the spray and the cold feel of the brick behind him the only feeling, until he moaned at the wet, hot curl of lips around the head of his cock.

Stiles couldn’t look down; he couldn’t even open his eyes. He was lost. Lost in the scent of her, the feel of her mouth, the way her hand cupped his sack, but he didn’t let go of the wall, just held on for dear life as she took him in as far as she could, sucked him so hard it almost hurt, but it got him to cry out, and that was what she seemed to be waiting for.

She was heaven, the way she moved, the change in her touch, her lips, her tongue on the tip of him when she pulled him far enough out that her lips popped only to take him right back in. He couldn’t take it anymore, feeling his skin tighten, and he finally let go of the wall, hands going to the back of her head, and he opened his eyes to take a chance at looking down.

It seemed she knew just what he was attempting because she looked up at the same time, blue eyes bright and glowing, with possession in them, with a statement that Stiles couldn’t refuse anymore. She was his, he was hers, and she wouldn’t deny him just because she couldn’t. His hands left her hair, grabbed her under her shoulders and lifted her to her feet, quickly backing her against the wall as his lips crashed into hers, kissing without restrictions, and she let him.

Solara should have been terrified at the treatment, the old feelings of  _ run, fight, survive _ were just something ingrained in her in a situation like this, but she felt none of it, she only felt Stiles. His leg slipped between hers, thigh pressed against her clit, sending waves of electric pleasure through her and she moaned into his mouth.

Stiles smiled, slowly moving, cock trapped between them as he shifted, a slow move that pushed and pulled at her, but his kiss never wavered, and the threat of covering her in come only grew.

“Won’t hurt you, would never hurt you,” he whispered against her lips as his hips moved, creating the friction they both needed, and Solara let her head fall back, soft moans escaping as Stiles pressed on. “Want to mark you, though, need to.” His thoughts were just not his, and he didn’t usually go with feelings alone, but this was something he actually  _ needed _ , he wasn’t lying. But he knew what a marking meant for wolves. A bite. That he couldn’t do, not yet. He did know another way. “Want you to smell like me,” one hard thrust against her, and Stiles could feel the slickness on his legs, “always, Sol, always. Say that you’re mine.” And as much as the words sounded harsh, they were soft, full of things Stiles himself didn’t understand. “Please.” His forehead rested against her shoulder, taking in everything about her, and her fingers curled into his skin, stinking with a hint of claws, as he whispered once more. “Please.”

“Stiles,” the sound of his name in her wrecked voice sent him teetering on the edge, “I’m yours, Stiles. Only yours.”

And that was it. Stiles through his head back, eyes wide as he stared at nothing, seeing only stars as he came on her skin, gentle thrusts against her stomach, coating them both, but what he heard was her moans, her sighs, her heart beating. It anchored him, kept him from floating away, from following the strange euphoric feeling, and her fingers tracing up his spine and into his hair to bring his face back to her neck… Stiles had never felt anything more perfect.

They stood there for what seemed like forever, the water never felt as if it ran cold -- Derek had some industrial water tanks somewhere in the building -- but it didn’t matter to Stiles and Solara, they hadn’t stepped out of each other’s arms for a second.

At least, not until the pounding on the door.

“I have to pee!” That was Liam, no matter how old he got, he was still the youngest and acted like it. “Hurry up.”

Stiles felt her body move, laughing silently at the young beta before he stepped back, turned the heat up just a bit, and pulled her under the spray. He washed her once more, then her hair, before he pulled her out, wrapping a towel around her. Solara let him do it, her eyes never leaving his as he quickly kissed her and jumped back under the water to wash himself.

It probably should have only taken them the five minutes to wash and dress that it did in the end, but Stiles was perfectly happy with the hour or so they had spent in the room together. When they opened the door, Liam rushed in, shooing them both out into the cool loft air before he slammed the door shut and groaned.

“Smells like mates in here,” could be heard all the way down the hall, but that made Solara stop in the common room, her eyes going over everyone there.

Stiles stepped up beside her, curious amber eyes uncertain of her sudden reaction to the group. “What’s wrong?”

“You said a few weeks?” Solara looked up at him, worry in her gaze.

“Yeah, since Liam found Dakota, maybe two months tops.”

She took a deep breath, looked at Derek, Isaac, Cara, and back at Charlie, before her eyes fell on Stiles. “Um… I think…” She glanced at Liam when he stepped out of the bathroom, “we need to talk.”

Stiles drew in a breath, placed on hand on his hip and ran the other across his forehead.  _ That _ was never a good sign.


End file.
